musings of Mother Hood

Gobble 'til you Wobble

I can't remember the last time the Martins had a "traditional" Thanksgiving. It's always been that holiday that at least one of us is traveling or deployed or working or who knows what else -- and we haven't spent a Thanksgiving Day all gathered round a beautiful turkey in our own home in YEARS.

So why start now??

My sister Laura and her husband Leo invited us to celebrate with them in Dallas this year, so the Hoods made plans to make the trip. We would spend a few days with the Martins then a few days with the Hoods. Dallas to Arkadelphia -- and back to Fayetteville -- isn't too bad for a long weekend. So off we went.

But with my race coming up I wanted to make plans to run that week, too, and I've been thinking it might be fun to do a Turkey Trot. So I found this:

 

Only the biggest Turkey Trot in the whole freaking country! Perfect! 40,000+ people at this thing, you guys. And they encourage dogs and families and strollers. It's a whole thing. AND this year they were aiming to break the Guinness World Record for most people dressed as turkeys -- 661! (In hindsight, I am wishing we had participated in the world record setting turkey-ness, but there's always next year.)

Somehow during the last few months I convinced my sister Laura, her husband Leo, and my Dad to join me in the Trot. Such good sports, aren't they? And Mom, Jeff and Colt came along as the cheering section. The race took place right downtown so we decided to forego the traffic scene and take the DART. Colt L-O-V-E-D "the train".

Not quite knowing what to expect, we got to the race really early. It was fairly cold, but the turkey watching made up for it. There were even dogs dressed like turkeys! And oh my gosh, there were SO MANY PEOPLE.

That is the face that happens when you yell, "CHEESEBURGERS" at the camera.

 

After goofing around for about an hour trying to stay warm, it was time to head toward the start line absolute mob of people covering the start line.

That picture reminds me. It was cold -- and super foggy. The weather forecast had said it would be a sunny, beautiful day but the fog never lifted and the whole event had a nice, mysterious feeling to it. Runners appearing in and out of fog.

But there we are! Team Hood/Martin/Rangira! Our agreed upon "uniform" was red, white &/or blue -- but it appears we all settled on red. This was the last picture our cheering section took before they headed back to the hotel for more clothes. We would see them again at the finish line.

The race was scheduled to start at 9am, but -- as you can tell from the photo above -- it was a little crowded so the "start" was a process. The gun went off right at 9, but we didn't move an inch. We were shoulder to shoulder with 44,000 of our newest friends. Ten minutes went by and we hadn't moved, so Dad started to investigate. He noticed there were portions of the crowd moving more quickly so we maneuvered over to the side of the street and tried to keep moving. Sloooow progress. It eventually took us a full 30 minutes just to GET TO the start line! And even after that, the crowd didn't thin much. The amount of people was unreal.

I split off from our group at the start line, and deployed my best crowd management strategy to find a way to actually RUN in the midst of all those people. There were actually two races -- a 5K and an 8 mile distance. I was doing the 8 mile while Laura, Leo and Dad were trotting the 5K. Both races were together for the first 3 miles so it was like an urban obstacle course -- zig-zagging across the street, looking for openings in the crowd, jumping up on curbs, hurdling fire hydrants, avoiding getting tangled in dog leashes, trying not to trample slow-moving baby strollers. It was wild.

It was a beautiful thing when I saw the fork in the road and I got to take the 8 mile route - the road less traveled. The 8 mile race took a detour over the Trinity River. Here I am smiling on the Houston Street Viaduct around mile 5:

By this time, the cheering section had made it back with warmer clothes and they were ready to cheer us all across the finish.

Jeff captured a few shots of the finishers while they waited for me. A turkey/pilgrim duo, a very sweaty Christmas tree, and a guy who makes me never want to complain about sore feet or legs ever again.

Wow.

And eventually - I could see the finish line! Hi family!

Finish Line! My goal was 1:20, an even 10 minutes/mile. But -- even with the crazy slow first 2-3 miles -- I beat my goal! AND all the zig-zagging through the crowd added over 1/10th of an extra mile, so yay me! Extra running! Ha! My 1:19 made me 164th in my age division (out of 309 females 25-29) and 919th overall female (out of 1779).

I'm so glad I did this race, and it was perfect timing with my half marathon being just over a week away. Doing a longer race meant I had to keep a race pace for a longer distance, and I think it helped to know what that feels like. And doing a really big race was good, too, since the Vegas half will be just about the same number of people.

The unexpected benefit of doing a longer race like this was the soreness in my legs. I could barely walk on Friday. It was good to figure out what to do AFTER a race, too - to recover. I'm much better prepared for what my legs might feel like after this weekend. I hope...

While we walked around a bit after the race, Colt managed to find something to entertain himself. Ponies!

One more train ride and we were back at the hotel, ready for a shower and a nap.

We all crashed. Hard. And then we were ready for Round 2 of Thanksgiving with quick dinner and yummy dessert at Laura and Leo's house.

And there was a bit of relaxing, of course, iPhone in hand.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Martins!

After a few days of foggy, cold togetherness in Dallas we packed up and headed north for a few days of football and food in Arkadelphia. I never take enough pictures of our time there -- I need to be better at that, but here are Colt and Pop coming back from a "hike" in the backyard. (You'll notice he's wearing the same outfit. This was not the same day. It was his unofficial Thanksgiving costume...)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The Rest of the Story

I got all excited and started to tell you about our long weekend with family, but only got as far as Thursday. Whoops.

But better late than never, right?

It's true. I was off work Thursday and Friday last week to drive to Cabot and back (Thursday) then entertain the fam in Fayetteville (Friday and beyond). Which may or may not seem monumental, but around here -- it's a pretty big deal. All Martins in the same place at the same time -- doesn't happen that often. Especially not in Fayetteville!

My Dad came from San Antonio and picked up Laura and Leo in Dallas on his way. Mom flew in from Virginia and Erika flew in from Georgia. Becky is here in Fayetteville, too and that rounded out the group.

We joined The Harbor at Faith & Family Night with the Arkansas Naturals Friday night -- and let Colt enjoy his first baseball game.

He spent every minute of the pre-game festivities (well, until the fireworks) hanging on the edge of the fence, waving to the baseball players warming up. IN LOVE.

And remember what I said about all those Martins? All in one place?

Front Row, Left to Right: Laura, Leo, Erika, MawMaw, Colt, PawPaw. Back Row, Left to Right: Becky, Creed (Becky's boyfriend), Jeff, Sarah.

In this next photo, my friend Nancy managed to capture the perfect culmination of several notable factors:

1. I am constantly on the Quest For The Perfect Family Photo and I rarely pass up an opportunity when we are all showered and dressed (and sometimes not even that...) and doing something fun.
2. Colt is in that stage (that I assume will last for about 18 more years...) in which he looks anywhere but at the camera and makes my Quest For The Perfect Family Photo a lesson in patience and creativity instead.
3. "Got your nose!" is endlessly entertaining. I don't care who you are.

The Double Nose Get! We never saw it coming!

More ballgame pics of families from The Harbor on Facebook - or RIGHT HERE.

I can't remember exactly, but we made it to inning 6ish before the munchkin's bedtime came calling. He really seemed to like it (except for the blasted fireworks) so we might look for a day game to check out this summer. 

All that fun and the actual weekend hadn't even started yet! Saturday morning we headed over to MawMaw and PawPaw's hotel to mess around in the pool.

The water was a little chilly and his teeth were chattering out of his head, but he didn't care. He splashed around until lunch time. Lunch, nap and a trip to the bookstore to show MawMaw the train table -- and it was time to get ready for supper!

I mentioned that the family doesn't get together all that often. So we decided to squeeze every drop out of this weekend -- and celebrate everything within 100 miles. Yes, it was Mother's Day weekend, but my Mom and Dad put their heads together and came up with a "Celebration!" that included EVERYONE. We celebrated birthdays, graduations, Mother's Day, Father's Day, green cards, and memorials.

And we ate.

I love this. It allllllmost looks like Jeff and I could be on a nice little date. But then you see the sippy cup peeking over the edge of the picture. Yah family life!

And one with the monkey himself.

And after a few more family photos outside the restaurant (courtesy of the cute prom kids waiting for their table) --

(-- and a quick stop in the parking lot to capture THIS --)

-- it was time for the real Celebration!

Remember? Birthdays, graduations, Mother's Day, Father's Day, green cards (and driver's licenses and SS cards!), and memorials. We celebrated it all!

I know that's more pictures than commentary, but I hope you can tell that we had a really good time together. We ate, we swam, we enjoyed America's pastime -- we celebrated.

And it totally wore out these Hoods. Everyone left early Sunday morning and we played hooky from church just to regroup a little. And I enjoyed what is now my favorite day of the year - with my two favorite people.

Happy Mother's Day to me.

This Christmas

"We still do both," I answered in the weeks leading up to Christmas when asked about our plans.

I would usually get a scrunched face and a knowing, sympathetic look. Evidently, it's the thing to do now to swap holidays with your different families to cut down on travel time and such. You know, visit Dad's family for Thanksgiving and Mom's family at Christmas -- then switch for next year.

Apparently, we're old school. We do both.

A perfect storm of circumstances got us into this predicament and, honestly, I don't think we mind. All the Hoods only get together once a year, so we want in on that. And the Martins all have ONE little boy to spoil!

So! Two Christmases!

But first, there was the pre-party. I sent a camera to school with Colt in hopes of capturing a few gems from his class Christmas party. Mission: Accomplished.

Please notice that the frosting is being enjoyed as a mess only. Very little of it made it into his mouth. That's my boy!

 

I would have been there myself if not for this pesky conscience of mine that kept me and my flu-like germs at home. We'll be there next year, Buddy.

Stupid flu also derailed my plans to procrastinate all holiday shopping and baking till the weekend before Christmas. Yeah. That didn't work AT ALL. We didn't get to our gingerbread house, but I have half a mind to do it this week anyway. Stupid flu.

While I was procrastinating, Santa's elf (a.k.a. Grandpa Martin) was hard at work. I loved getting 
periodic photos with Grandpa's progress in the workshop. You'll see pictures in a minute, but my Dad built a Lego table for Colt that is perfect perfect perfect. He's played on it every day since we got home.

In fact, he's been in overdrive. I think he opened more presents at Christmas this year than the number of toys we previously had in our entire house. But I'm pretty sure we got through the entire week without opening a single toy that requires batteries! God love Hot Wheels and Legos. (Aunt Sarah: I WILL find a way to repay you for giving my two year old cymbals and maracas!)

Ok - one last thing before we get to the deluge of Christmas pictures. This is too good not to share. We usually play games at both the Hoods' and the Martins', but the Martins tend to be more... animated. The game is Rigamarole. And it's kind of a combo of Charades, Pictionary, and Taboo. The teams were Grandma/Grandpa, Laura/Leo, Becky/Sarah. Colt and Jeff cheered us on.

Martin Family - Rigamarole. Christmas 2010 from Sarah Hood on Vimeo.

So! Two Christmases! Puzzles and cars, lots of football and lots of cousins at the Hoods'. Legos, Bass Pro, and new family members to introduce to the Razorbacks at the Martins'.

Christmas 2010 from Sarah Hood on Vimeo.

If you're viewing this post via email or a reader, please click on through to enjoy the videos.

This Little Light of Mine

My sister is coming home. And I'm so, so proud of her that I want to brag about her all over the internet. Laura is finishing up her last few days as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in Botswana, Africa and will be home in a few short weeks.

Her commitment to the Peace Corps was two years, and I am so relieved she is one of the volunteers that has truly had a positive experience. Not everyone gets what they were expecting when they join the Peace Corps, and - let's be honest - it's hard to know WHAT to expect with something like that. But she has really, truly loved it.

Laura has such a servant heart and an adventurous spirit - and it's been so cool to see her thrive on this latest leg of her journey. I can hardly wait to see what she has planned for her NEXT adventure.

Here are a few pics from her time in Botswana and her travels through Africa, and please stop by and visit her blog to leave an encouraging word or two.

 

 

 

  

 

  

  

 

Laura tells the stories behind these photographs better than I ever could. She'll probably be telling those stories over and over for years to come. Love you, Sister! Can't wait to welcome you home.  

Holiday Recap

So I feel like I may have slacked a little on the holidays this year and I can't quite put my finger on it.  Let's see, I spent Thanksgiving - the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season - in sunny Africa. Which just kinda started off Holiday Season 2009 on a different page than years past. I must have been relying on Turkey Day for "the spirit" more than I realized. I got back from my trip just in time for December and I felt so behind. I hadn't started my shopping, I hadn't decorated the house. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas always seems to fly by in a blur of parties and baking and shopping and traveling -- and I couldn't quite keep up.

I convinced myself that a tree was not in the cards for us this year. Honestly, I didn't think it would be any fun for Colt to have to stare at a big, beautiful, shiny, blinking, dangling temptation every day for a month but get his hands spanked every time he indulged. So we didn't put up a Christmas tree. I did put up our stockings - which are one of my favorite things about Christmas anyhow. And we went to visit Santa. We didn't go completely humbug.

   

This time of year always carries with it a kind of heightened level of emotion. Families are together. Or not. It's the end of one year, beginning of the next so it's a perfect time to reflect on both the memorable and forgettable moments of the past twelve months and beat yourself up about them. And this year, the emotion was not lost on me. I teared up at each and every clip I saw of a deployed soldier wishing his family back home a Merry Christmas. And I subjected myself to the last ten minutes of Marley & Me about seven times. What a mess.

And on top of everything. The Pampers - Silent Night TV spot. It absolutely melts me into a pathetic little puddle of mush. And I usually see it twelve hundred times around the holidays. But this year - nothing.  Not once. You know, this should actually be at the top of the list of pathetic reasons I feel like The Grinch this year. I didn't get my regular injection of peaceful widdle sweeping babies.

Told you.

So anyway. I am committed. Christmas 2010 will be different. We will decorate a tree. We will go see Christmas lights and leave cookies for Santa. We will take pictures in our jammies. Next year, Colt will be old enough to really get into things and I look forward to seeing the magic of Christmas through a whole new set of eyes.

***

Now that I've put a good, solid damper on things -- let's try to refocus. Despite my, ahem, minimalist attitude about Christmas this year, we had a holiday full of family and fun and memories.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more."

We left on the 22nd for Hood Christmas in Arkadelphia. It is the only time of year that all the Hoods get together in one place and these days there are 14 of us! The Atlanta Hoods made it to town right before us and we attended the 2nd Annual Holiday Steak Night at the Teeds'. Last year, Frank and John grilled steak for everyone (they kindly grilled me a chicken breast) and it was such a big hit that I believe it's here to stay.

Several months back I innocently suggested to Sarah and Lynn that we attempt a family photo at Christmas this year as the last time a photo was taken of all the Hoods was at Pop and Grandmother's 50th anniversary in 2004. Well I guess that's not even true because there's a photo of all of us at our wedding in 2006. Either way, it was high time. Little did I know how entertaining taking a photo of 14 people could be! We should do it EVERY year! If I had thought about it I would have been taking photos OF the photo taking - priceless! We don't have proofs yet, but of course I'll post them when I get them.

Colt was pretty excited about being allowed to rip things apart when it came time to open presents. It didn't take him too long to get the hang of it. Santa (and Aunt Lynn, Aunt Sarah, Courtney, and Grandmother!) was very good to him this year and we had a lot of fun.

 

 

That cellphone was a gift from Aunt Sarah. I have no idea how he knows how to hold it... so accurately...  

Colt has been all about the kitchen lately, mostly trying his hardest to sit or stand in the 10 inch space between my feet at all times. I can't blame him. The kitchen has all kinds of interesting noises and smells and stuff to bang together. And Grandmother was more than happy to oblige. Here they are making meringue.

  

Colt spent most of his time chasing Grandmother around the kitchen or dancing up and down the hallway to the music pouring out of the Barney music game Grandmother left out for him. Quite the musical little guy. Once he figured out how to push the buttons and turn the pages on Barney - it was all over. I love that you don't have to teach babies to dance. They just bounce their little bottoms and wave their hands. Adorable.

The weather was downright crappy while we were in Arkadelphia. It literally rained the entire time.

 

See Arkansas in there, under all the "weather"? See the part where the yellow circle of Severe T'Storms Possible overlaps the red circle of Flash Flooding Possible? Yeah, that would be Arkadelphia. It rained over 10 inches in the 48 hours we were there. TEN. INCHES. And it was getting worse. The forecast for late on the 24th was looking like snow as we approached Northwest Arkansas so we loaded up and tried to beat the weather back to our house.

We made it back before it started snowing, and we woke up to the first White Christmas for Fayetteville since the 70s. Christmas Day was nice and quiet at our own house. We napped a little and played in the snow a little. Merry Christmas, Buddy!

 

 

  

The next day (the 26th) Grandma and Grandpa Martin and Aunt Becky arrived from San Antonio to celebrate the second half of Christmas! That night Grandma and Grandpa helped Santa assemble Colt's new tricycle.

 

And the next morning was another round of presents and wrapping paper and BOWS!

 

 

 

 

 
 

Aunt Laura sent Colt some shakers from Botswana. They are used in traditional Setswana dancing, wrapped around your feet. I think Colt is definitely getting the hang of them...

   

Grandma and Grandpa were able to stay for several days and it was so nice to get to visit with them. I missed their visit in November while I was in Africa so I hadn't seen them in a few months. And they got to spend a few days spoiling the little guy.

 

Grandma Martin thinks it is borderline child abuse that we don't give Colt baths. (He takes showers with Jeff. I don't remember who told us about this technique but we've done it since day one and it is CRAZY efficient.) So. Guess what Colt got for Christmas from Grandma!

 

And Grandpa's contribution. Always with the coffee. Over the course of a few days, Grandpa taught Colt how to use our coffeemaker. (And everyone knows you have to wear protective gear when making coffee.)

 

 

A lot of good food and a few movies later it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to head home. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

(We had to go over to Becky's apartment to take our family photo in front of a Christmas tree.)

***

Dear Santa,

I wasn't very good this year, but I sure appreciate all the laughs you sent me anyway. It's all I truly wanted for Christmas this year and you delivered - as always.

You're the best.

Love, Sarah

On travel.

December 19 Car ride. What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with? 

(Also: 

December 1 Trip. What was your best trip in 2009?
December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?)

So the actual prompt for today is the Car Ride one at the top, but since I've missed half the month, and I consider the 12/1 and 12/9 prompts relevant to the discussion, I thought I'd give myself credit for them. 

It seems odd that we did so much traveling in 2009 with such a young kid, but after making a quick mental list, and conferring with Jeff as I forget things in record time these days, I realized the Hoods really made the rounds this year. Between the two of us Jeff and I have hit several major US cities: Orlando, San Diego, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Antonio, Seattle, and Las Vegas. All this year! And that doesn't even count my recent international jaunt to Africa during which Laura and I visited five countries in 8 days. Wow. 

Colt didn't make it to all those places with us, but my account of our trip to Seattle got picked up by a site called Pitstops for Kids!. He is totally famous - check it out RIGHT HERE.  

So - let's see. 

Car ride? We took a few. Branson. Little Rock/Arkadelphia/Smackover. Tulsa/Muskogee/Tahlequah. Probably others. The little guy tolerates the car pretty well and we try to time things with his nap and dinner time and such so that the ride is more bearable for everyone. We didn't take any major car ride across the country or anything - though I'm sure we'll lose our minds and attempt it one of these days. Honestly, my favorite car ride is the one I take at 5:00 every day when I pick up the munchkin from school. 

Best Trip of 2009. This is a pretty easy one. My trip to Africa will be hard to top. So many cool, once-in-a-lifetime experiences during that week. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to go. And glad my sweet husband made me get serious about going and buy my ticket. 

Challenge. Something that really made you grow. Again with the traveling. It was really tough on all three of us to be away from each other during various trips this year. With one of us gone, the other has to fill both roles and gains a new appreciation for how much the other one really does help around the house and with Colt. We've relied on Grandparents to help us a couple of times, and I know that's something that helps Colt be more flexible and get used to a little different routine. I love it when we're together all the time, but coming home after being gone is pretty good, too.

***

In response to daily prompts, reflecting back on 2009, provided at gwenbell.com. Join me, won't you?

Tuesday Grab Bag

I received the following email from my sister Laura today. I laugh out loud every time I read it and decided I must share it with the masses.

Ok, I have officially taken pictures of mr. willy for you. But haven't quite gotten around to putting them on a stick and bringing them to the office. So I'm close. Very close.
 
But I have a more pressing issue. A funny one. I had a dream last night, and it involved you, and crazy baby names. Both things I know you love.  :)  So I dreamt that we had a baby. Meaning: one of us gave birth (not sure which), but we planned on "sharing it." In the dream it made total sense... So I was over with the nursery people filling out the birth certificate, and I decided to name him "Keikeipa." And in the dream, I LOVED that name. But when you saw it, you absolutely FLIPPED and demanded that it be changed. So you went off and did a whole new birth certificate with your preferred name: "Husker." Yes- you named our child after the Nebraska mascot. Way to go, co-Mom.
 
And that was it.  :)

***

Couple things. First, Mr. Willy is a topic for a later post. Trust me, he's worth the wait. Second, I would NEVER name a child Husker. Just so that's on the record. Though I would obviously prefer "Husker" to "Keikeipa" - whatever that means.

Now then. A coworker sent me this video today and I just had to pass it along. "Kid" stuff like this never really amused me before I had my own, but now I think things like this are hysterical.  (Also - testing the new video posting feature on the blog for the first time, so let me know if it's crappy.)

 

Africa - 2009

I've finally finished compiling photos, videos and journaling from my trip and you can find it all RIGHT HERE. 

For future reference, it's listed in the bottom left hand corner of this page - called "Africa - 2009" and photos are all in a photo album listed along the right hand side of this page - called, you guessed it, "Africa - 2009".

I hope you enjoy the stories and photos as much as I enjoyed the trip.

Tease

I'm back home, safe and sound, having just spent 10 days traveling to see my sister Laura in Botswana. SO much fun and I have 6 zillion pictures to prove it. I am currently writing everything up and will be posting about my trip before the end of the week. Maybe sooner if my technology will cooperate... I'm having some technical difficulties with my photos - my hard drive seems to have eaten several of them for lunch today.

So - checking in. No pictures yet. No Africa blog yet. But it's coming. I swear.

Training Mode

I mailed my passport renewal form today. What a racket. $75 and a mugshot later - I have officially notified the Department of State that #1: I changed my name almost three years ago, and that #2: I would like to travel out of the country, please. Bleh. 

But WORTH IT! I have not mentioned it here so I will now - I am going to Africa. Africa! I am more than a wee bit excited about it and haven't really stopped thinking about it since I booked my plane ticket to Johannesburg last week. I'm probably driving Laura crazy with emails and questions and phone calls and squealing and - you know - general girly excitement. And I have to wait all the way until No-VEM-berrrrrrr. *Whiiiiiiine* I haven't done any international traveling since I returned from my fall semester abroad in 2002, but I'm looking forward to dusting off the ole backpack and practicing my best Yes-I'm-an-American-but-I'm-not-as-stupid-as-we-look-on-TV face. 

So. In preparation for my trip. Which is 118 whole days away. Counting!

Sarah's Prep List*

1. Renew passport. Check!
2. Take advantage of Laura's Peace Corps discount on Chacos - umm, 50. Percent. Yes maam.
3. Watch the following movies about Africa: Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Last King of Scotland.
4. Repair any damage caused by above movies by watching The Lion King.
5. What else? 

*Yes, I know. Another list. I can't help myself.