I’ve wanted a tattoo for always. sadly, i’m highly practical and never could bring myself to desecrate my body unless it really meant something to me on a deeply personal level. I’ve had ideas over the years but, obviously, none of them struck me enough to make me go out and do it. fast forward to hubby signing up for ironman and committing to get the mdot tattoo. the pressure was on; if I was going to get inked with my hubby, I was going to have to find my muse. all year, I struggled with ideas. I came up with one that I was very close to committing to but then, when I was printing pix from our holy land trip last year, it hit me. while we were in England, we visited ely cathedral with our friends and there was a sculpture that I fell in love with.

Jonathan Clarke's massive cast-aluminium sculpture "The Way Of Life" inside Ely Cathedral which "reminds us that life is far from straightforward. Along its many twists and turns Christ travels with us from darkness to the light of the cross."

and just like that, months after my baptism, I knew I had found my tattoo. so last night, my hubby and I finally got inked! I had been warned by everyone that I know that foot tattoos are super painful. either mine was simple enough or my pain threshold is high enough that it really wasn’t a big deal at all. I would rate it at a 3 on a 1-10 pain scale. it probably went up to a 4 for an hour or so when I started walking on it but still nothing like I imagined. it was an interesting experience and i’m so excited about the result.

From inked!, posted by J’Lynn Holloway on 1/09/2014 (13 items)

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finished artwork

this weekend, my husband became an ironman! ironday is always a fun time around here but this year was definitely the best. we had a bunch of family come in to support him. my sister’s family drove through the night and got into town just in time to meet us at the beach for the swim start.

ready to get this thing started

he had a terrific swim… 1:19 and then he was off on the bike. I got in touch with his brother and sister and they joined me and my sister’s family for a race north of town so that we could catch a sighting of him out on the bike. we managed to get to the 43 mile marker just in time to see him come and go and it was so exciting. I teared up when I saw the smile on his face.

we then headed back to the race area and my sister and the kids hung out with me at our group’s tent while we waited for him to finish his ride. when we saw on the tracker that he was getting close, we headed to the transition area and got to watch him come in from his bike (5:51!) and leave for his run.

he looked so strong as he started the marathon… yes, I teared up some more. I went back to the tent to spend time with friends while my sissy took the kids to get poster-making supplies. I got to see him when he passed by the tent on his way to the turnaround and then a few minutes later when he started his second loop. in fact, he stopped to hug me as I handed him his arm warmers!

only 13 more miles to go!

finally, it got close to finishing time and his brother was a huge help in making sure that ALL of the family – including his mom and my dad who are both struggling with health issues – was there in time to see him complete his journey. I found a great, unobstructed area for them to sit where they would see him come around the corner and enter the finisher’s chute. my sister, the kids, and I staggered ourselves along the finisher’s chute with me being right across the line. unfortunately, IMFL does a terrible job of allowing visual access to the finish line so I couldn’t actually see him coming down the chute but I got to hear the announcer calling his name and I got to see the huge smile on his face when he crossed that line. I was crying, I was screaming, my heart was bursting with pride in my husband. he finished the marathon in 5:12 which made his total race time 12:39. his goal was sub-13 and he blew it away!

you. are. IRONMAN!

my ironhubby and me

the kids just HAD to have signs for the finish line

I found out later that when he came around the final corner, his mom stood up from her wheelchair to cheer him on and he stopped to hug her and his dad before entering the chute. what an awesome moment that must have been!

with family support like that, he was bound to have a great race

this pas weekend, hubby had a hilly bike race up in north ga.  it was a beautiful day and he did great… especially considering that he’s a Floridian athlete whose idea of “hill” training is riding repeats over the highway bridge.  the course had a mile of elevation change and he finished almost an hour quicker than he anticipated.

since we were going up to that neck of the woods anyhow, we decided to extend the trip a bit and visit our old office and my brudder’s family in their new habitat and new restaurant.  the restaurant is awesome and huge.  plenty of room for them to really grow it into a great business.  naturally, my SIL stuffed us silly and we were fat and happy with her fantastic cooking.  of course, this also meant that we got to see my baby girl for the first time since she was just an itty bitty.  we spent some time with her at the restaurant but she was shy and didn’t feel like getting to know us.  when we went back to their house, she decided to open up to us a bit showing us her great room and toys and how she can wrestle her daddy.before long, she had warmed up to us and let me pick her up and play with her. who doesn’t love being upside down?  it’s great fun! auntie arcanai is her favoritest aunt… she just doesn’t understand that yet 🙂 she likes to play “so big!”  i’m not sure if this is a well-known thing or not but it’s something we got from our mom.  basically, you say “so big!” in a high, sing-song voice and she reaches up to the sky to show you just how big she is.  I have fond memories of this and I’ve always done it with any baby I’ve ever held in my life.  apparently, it stuck with my brother too because this definitely was not her first rodeo.  it’s really stinkin adorable! the only family pic I got.  they were playing and having fun so it’s okay that their eyes weren’t all open.

I surprised my daddy by showing up on his doorstep for father’s day when he thought I was far away at home.  It’s important to embrace the time we have together while it lasts.  We never know when it’ll be too late to show someone how much we love them.

today was another park day.  eden gardens state park is just down the road and I hadn’t even heard of it.  we stopped at Panera for breakfast and sammiches to bring for picnicking.  we did a tour of the old house which was Victorian house that was bought back in the 60s and renovated into antebellum style.  it houses the 2nd largest collection of Louis xvi furniture in the US.  I kind of wish that it had been the original Victorian but it was still a nice walk through.  the gardens weren’t at their prime but it was still a nice grounds to walk through.  we sat at a table by the bayou (in fl that means a body of water that is land on three sides and attaches to a bay on one side) and watched the ducks while we ate.  we then walked around some of the nature trails and ran up on a raccoon and the most frightening hive of bees I’ve ever seen.

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9 years into happy ever after

today was a relaxing day of sleeping in and lounging around before our big anniversary dinner. we grabbed a couple friends and made our way west to the melting pot. kids, I can’t possibly express just how much I heart the melting pot.  it’s just always a fabulous meal and experience.  and I can’t even remember the last time we ate at one.  our friends haven’t experienced this joy before so it was great to be the ones to expose them to the wonder that is terrific fondue.  although trainwreck went into it with some apprehension as he thought that fondue meant that everything was going to be cooked in melted cheese (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).  it was definitely a night of great food and even greater companionship.  oh, and mojo bullion… oh my goodness!  I couldn’t stop eating the broccoli florets because they soaked the flavor up so strongly.

since we moved here, I’ve been wanting to go to fl caverns state park.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve suggested this as a nice little weekend activity for the hubby and I.  last year, a couple neighbors invited me to go with them while hubby was out of town and I jumped at the opportunity since it started to look like hubby was never going to be interested.  it turned out to be a very nice little park and pretty decent caverns.  today, I finally convinced hubby to go check it out with me.  we stopped for breakfast on the way and then grabbed some publix subs to pack for a picnic lunch.  we did the cave tour and hubby agreed that it was a very worthwhile experience for fl.  we walked around some of the nature trails and checked out the blue hole springs swimming hole and had an all around pleasant day, aside from hubby nearly stepping on a copperhead snake who was none too happy about our invasion of his solitude.

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hubby completed his second half-iron distance triathlon today. his first one was two years ago and he did a great job and had fun. today, he managed to take 34 minutes off his time!!! I couldn’t be more proud of him. and now we’re halfway through the year of ironman training!

demonstrating his swim technique	for a short while, we had matching purple heads
1.2 mile swim... check!	56 mile bike... check!
a little wet but at least that kept the run cooler	13.1 mile run and completion of another half-iron... check!
so proud of my hubby after 5 hours and 56 minutes of giving his all!

and then this was him upside down in the passenger seat trying to get his legs to stop aching while I drove us to his parents’ for mother’s day 🙂

now that all of our kiddos have finally gotten their Christmas gifts from their favoritest aunt and uncle, i can share my special project. those who know us are aware that we travel a lot but we’re not huge on souvenirs. on our epic trip this past fall (am i ever going to post that travel log?), we were limited by time – the best destinations, Egypt and Israel, were crazy busy trying to see everything we possibly could – and packing space since i was very strict about our baggage limitations for the month overseas as i’m too cheap to pay for my bags to fly. we did make sure that we fulfilled specific requests, which were surprisingly few and highly reasonable. but we also had to bring back some gifts. for all the ladies/girls, we bought small pieces of murano glass from our quick tour of venice. my biggest thing, however, was that i wanted to have something meaningful for all the kiddos from the Holy Land. in our two days of frantic touring, we only had a couple souvenir opportunities and the nice stuff was either too big for our luggage space or too expensive (i really wish i would have bought that gorgeous olive wood nativity that i fell in love with in Bethlehem. we would have had to ship it back home but, in retrospect, it would have been worthwhile). my solution was to buy a bigger bottle of Holy water for hubby’s uncle (a special request from him) and use some of the water to hand-craft gifts for the kids. i ordered some cross-shaped glass vials and bought some jewelry cord, ends, and clasps. i couldn’t find any alpha beads small enough to fit in the vials so i ended up having to find some plain 3mm beads and write on them myself to form each kid’s name. i even did a couple of them with chips of wood which i felt gave it a really cool effect, considering that they were floating in Holy water. i’m a bit ashamed of how much cursing occurred during the assembly of these but we prayed over them when they were finished so i think that made up for it. i also prayed for each kid, individually, while i was working on theirs. i was really happy with the final product and i think all of the kids (well, all but the two infants) actually appreciated them.

of course, i wasn’t around for her real first Christmas but this was my day to shower her with gifts.  i can’t believe how much she’s grown since i last saw her (thanksgiving).  she’ll be walking when i see her again.  *sigh*  it was a great day of togetherness with my brudder, SIL, niece, and their friends/family.  technically, the cookout was a triple birthday party for brudder, his MIL, and me as our birthdays are all a week apart.  my little calligator was the only one who made out with loot though 😉

that's a heck of a chillin' nap	such rockin' footwear
ninja baby!	proud that i was able to give her her first fishing pole

i love that the cross is reflecting on her forehead

yesterday was our annual family disney day.  we’ve gone every Christmas season for the last twenty-three years that my dad had worked there.  last year was the only year we’ve ever missed, thanks to dad’s broken hip and five week hospital stay.  geez, you miss one year and the whole danged place changes!  there are new attractions and overhauls of old ones.  my favorite ride, the haunted mansion, had a ton of changes including some fantastic interactive embellishments to the line.  another great highlight to the day was the monster’s inc laugh floor.  if you’re not familiar, it’s an animated and interactive standup comedy attraction.  toward the end of the show, the monsters were joking with a kiddo in the audience and he asked the kid what you get when you mix a human and a grape.  the kid said he didn’t know and the monster said “we don’t either but there she is” as the spotlight flashed at me and i was shown on the big screen.  i laughed and laughed and laughed.  yay me for being part of the show!  arcanai: the human grape!  hee hee 😀  so, as always, it was a great day at the happiest place on earth with my terrific family.

we got to epcot first to ride the new and improved test track	we then made our way to the magic kingdom
we wandered around a bit before heading to tony's for lunch where my daddy surprised me with an early birthday cake	yummy cake
next we went to see the progress on the new fantasty land. we couldn't get into belle's place but we were allowed to look around at gaston's.	♫ everyone here wants to be you, gaston ♫
we checked out ariel's new under the sea ride	and hubby got to do it's a small world
even dumbo got some updates	there are now two dumbo rides - a long overdue improvement
reflections of neuschwanstein	cinderella's castle
and what trip to disney would be complete without a parking lot wheelchair race to wrap things up?

my cousin has been doing roller derby for the last year or so.  this is something that i’ve never actually experienced so it has been eye-opening to learn about this sport.  we went to one of her practices last year and i was completely clueless about what was happening.  last night, we finally got to see her in a real game (bout? match?).  thankfully, there was a player from another team sitting next to me so she patiently explained things to me throughout.  i think i finally got it about figured out around halftime.  it was a fun time and i’m glad we got to see her before she went on hiatus. 

go cousin go!

number .38

soylent pink and me

we drove down to orlando last night so that we could be here first thing this morning for my sissy’s neighborhood’s 5k.  we did it with them two years ago, before they even lived in the neighborhood and had a great time.  the race itself is nice because it works it’s way through 3.1 miles of quiet, tree-lined neighborhood roads but the real draw is the cause… benefits go to the russell home which is a fantastic organization that houses and supports atypical children in central florida.  i think this was their fourteenth year of putting on this charity event. 

so, two years ago, i found myself racing a little old lady – had to be in her eighties – and unable to beat her.  this year, i felt confident that i could take the octogenarian 🙂  i never saw her but i also didn’t post a stellar time (though much better than that one, for sure).  i guess i overdid it on my stairs workout the other day because my calves are super tight.  even though i stretched and warmed up good before the run, i decided not to push it.  i did a leisurely 36 minute 5k and enjoyed myself.  and when i got to the finish line, i stuffed myself full of panera bagels with my family.  i appreciate that running events are something that we can enjoy together as a family. 

nothing like cutting it down to the wire.  thirteen hours before the rental car has to be turned in, we finally drove off the lot with our new prius.  i drove it home while hubby drove the rental.  it is definitely going to take some getting used to.  it took me five minutes to figure out how to get it in drive.  crazy buttons all over the place.  but i like having the blutooth so that i could talk without a headset and listen to music from my phone.  and it was kind of fun scrolling through all the wacky animations they have to show how fuel efficient i’m being.  i might even figure out what they actually are telling me one of these days.  which would be no small feat considering the user manual for this thing is three inches thick – no hyperbole. 

this wasn’t a fun car shopping experience. we were under the gun because we had to have a car so it was stressful and i didn’t really fall in love with anything. i made this choice for practical reasons and i’m hoping to fall in love with it over the coming weeks. every other prius owner seems to heart theirs so i’m sure i will too. heck, i already adore the fact that it’s not rusting to pieces. don’t get me wrong… i do like it and i feel good about my choice… i just need to put the stress of the hunt behind me so that i can really enjoy it.