To one of the nicest persons I've ever known.

I want to tell you about a person that I was glad to call friend. Lindsay Hill.

The school I went to was one of those old town schools, where everybody knew everybody, and people rarely moved. I went to the same school from Kindergarten until I graduated. Sometimes that was hard. I BEGGED my mom to let me go to a different school on many occasions. When I finally had the opportunity to, I begged to be able to finish with all of my friends.

Lindsay was one of those people that everybody loved. You couldn't help but like her. She was smart, friendly,  athletic, and always had a smile on her face. Her family owned a farm in the area, much like about a forth of our school. She was active in the FFA , played basketball, and was even in the flag corps!

I was not in the popular crowd like Lindsay. She, unlike myself, was loved by everyone, students and teachers alike. It just seemed like whenever you would talk to her, it didn't matter who you were or what your social status was, she was a friend. She was like that with everybody.

I share many fantastic memories with Lindsay. Yesterday is a memory that I wish I didn't have to share with anyone ever again.

I posted on her facebook wall that she would be proud of me because, while it wasn't anything big, we had started a family garden. Then, another friend from our graduating class sent me a msg telling me that Lindsay had been killed in a 2 car accident that morning. I was floored. I didn't know what to say. How could this be? WHY! She was 31 years old, she still had her whole life ahead of her, why would God take such a wonderful person away from us? She was such a light in the darkness! I spent the rest of the evening in and out of crying. Sam got me to go out and work in the garden, said that it would help me get my mind off of the whole thing. I decided right there that I was going to dedicate our little plot of "farm" to her and Sams daughter.

Our little plot of Earth will now forever be called The Ivy Hill. There is no Ivy (yet) and the only hills are for pumpkins and watermelons. I would like to get some decorative stones or something to engrave with their names and dates and maybe a little plaque or something.

I lay in bed last night wondering why God would take such a wonderful person, and of course, my human nature kicked in and I got angry. I blamed the other driver, who walked away from that accident virtually unharmed. I wanted him to be some terrible person so it would be easy to blame him for snuffing out this beautiful candle. "Please be some punk kid" I found myself thinking. I looked him up on facebook this morning and he seems to be a nice person. He has the Rosewood Methodist Church website up as his website, and all of his public info is about churches. I just can't bring myself to hate him. It's not what Lindsay would do either. I'm sure he is hurting right now as well. Not only because he was in an accident, not just physical pain.

I sent a msg to her husband, tho they are separated. I'm sure he is going thru a lot right now as well. I send my prayers to the entire family, and to the family of the other driver. I'm sure that they are dealing with things as well.

Rest in peace dear friend. You will never be forgotten.

Lindsay Nicole Hill

10/25/79 - 5/19/11

Candles??

Just to let you know... the candle shop IS OPEN!!

Charwood Candle on Etsy

I only have 3 items in there right now, but, I do have more candles than that! :-) I promise! :-D

Results

So... I finally got the official time from the 5k, and I have to say that I am more than a bit confused.

My official time was 47 minutes flat.

Now... there was a lady from our church that I ran the ENTIRE race with. We crossed the finish line together... and her husband (who didn't run with us because he ran a much faster time) came back a ways and ran across the finish line (for a second time) with us. She's not listed with me! (And for the life of me I can't remember her last name... haha)

I'm very confused because when I crossed the finish line it said 46! No... I didn't mistake it for a 6 but it was an 8... it was a 6 I would bet my life on it!

All in all... I guess what REALLY matters is that I did it, not the time that I did it in. But, I would be lying if I said that 47 didn't bother me. I guess that just means more training, and more races! Maybe someday, I'll go run a half marathon with RJ! ;-)

Wounded Warriors 5k

So, I did it!! I ran my very first 5k today! There wasn't as much "running" as I would have liked there to be, but, it was there! My OFFICIAL time won't be up until Monday *grumble grumble* so I will do a full write up then!

I just wanted to let you all know that I DID finish... I DID jog across the finish line, and I DID promptly dump a bottle of water over my head!! LOL

My unofficial time was 46 minutes and some change, but there were a LOT of people in front of me before I got to cross the start line. But the timer at the finish line said 46:(something) when I crossed! I guess we will see on Monday! :-)

Wounded Warrior 5K!!

So, I'm signed up! On Saturday I'll be running in the Wounded Warrior 5K! It will be my first 5K as an adult, and my first one that I'll actually be running!! (I did one in HS for MS that I walked with my 4H club) I'm so stinkin excited!!!!!

What I'm NOT excited about is that my bone spur has been acting up and causing me to have pain in my Achilles tendon! GRR!! I took some advice from my friend RJ and decided that I was going to try KT Tape. I bought it today. Bright pink! ^.^ Only thing is... they have one application for "heel pain" and another for the "Achilles tendon" and I don't know which one to do! I wouldn't really call it HEEL pain, it IS in my tendon.... I did send them an email asking which application that I should use, but I haven't heard back yet. I'm going to train again on Wednesday and then maybe a light workout on Friday and then off to the race on Saturday! SOOOO EXCITED!!!!

The only other thing that I have to say about the race right now is, if you would like to donate to the Wounded Warriors, you can do so under my name! You go here and type in my name in the participants box Jacque Charwood. You don't have to.. I'm not begging, BUT! If you would like to, here's your opportunity! :-)

My training today? I ran 2.5 miles in just over 30 minutes. Not terrible... but not exactly great either! ;-) I guess I need to build up more endurance and get a lil faster. It will come with time! :-D

I'm saailing aaaawaaaaay!

No, not really. I just couldn't think of anything else to title it as. (Yes, I know I broke like 6978 bloglaws.... why?)
Anyways! Yesterday we had some more storms roll thru. This time Bug was home. Before the storms even got anywhere near us, I ran down the plan of action with the kiddos. Monk acted like a pro! "Yeah Mom... I know... we put on these bike helmets, get in the bath tub and huddle together in a downward motion." Bug on the other hand didn't really know what to do, so we showed her a few times and got on with our day.

We went to WalMart to get some tape and exchange our digital scale for the candle company. It was about 8:30 when we got there. It was almost a ghost town! There were very few cars in the parking lot, and there was only one person in the "speedy check out" buying smokes. I chatted with the cashier, we joked about the upcoming weather and how people around here go crazy in any type of weather. Which is pretty true, but I think that this freak out was just a bit warranted considering we had 3 confirmed tornadoes in town (Up to F3s!) less than 2 weeks ago. One of the guys that I used to work with was posting on facebook about how he thought everyone was stupid for being so freaked out about the storm because it's spring and we always get storms. I reminded him of the tornadoes and he responded with "Well, they didn't hit me, so what do I care?" I was a bit astonished really.

Then we get a knock on the door. You know that knock... the "Police knock"... that was the one! I sort of froze a bit and then decided that I should answer it. I always get nervous when I hear knocks like that. I think it comes from a few things really. 1) We're in a military town... everybody HATES hearing knocks like that... especially when their loved one is deployed. 2) Sam is still considered active duty, and the thought of something happening to him at work scares the bejesus out of me! 3) Because it scared the bejesus out of me! It turned out to be the UPS man delivering our Raspberry and Strawberry plants! I still can't believe we got SO many!! Now we just need to hurry and make the final prep for the strawberries to go in the ground! ACK! Sam says he's going to work the ground by hand.... somehow I think he's going to peter out before he gets it all done, but he could surprise me! The raspberry bushes were sent in a dormant state, so, we won't be enjoying any raspberries this year, but next year we should get at least a few! (I hope! LOL)

The storm finally approached and it wasn't all that bad. There was a little bit of lightning and a lot of wind! We went thru a "live" drill, where we packed everything into it's spot (important family documents and house insurance info in a waterproof bag with us) and got in the tub. We only stayed there for a little bit, but it was a run! Of course, the dogs were another issue. We didn't want Lilly getting under one of the beds and be struggling to get her out in a REAL emergency, so we shut all the doors to the bedrooms. She decided that under the very bottom section of the table would be a fantastic place to hide. Good thing it wasn't a REAL emergency, I don't know that we would have been able to get her out of there! We finally decided that everything was going to be just fine, and I made taco salad for dinner. We sat down to eat and then the Heavens closed and it suddenly went dark and a DOWNPOUR came. There was TONS of lightning and it was amazing! About 20 minutes after that the Heavens opened again and the sun came out and there was a gorgeous rainbow!

Greys Anatomy was new, so I went to bed a happy camper!!

Prince William and Kate got married this morning, but I managed to get ready to go jogging and fall back to sleep! I have no idea how that happened! Anyways! Now the kids and I are going to go to Sams Club and buy about 685462168 cans of veggies! :-D I hope they all fit in my truck!!

Easter!!

Well, those of you that know me, or follow me on Facebook, know that I spent all of Saturday making a new Easter dress, and if you follow me on Facebook, you've also seen these pictures! (So sorry...)

Sam bought me a sewing machine for our anniversary last year. I told him I wanted it... I told him that I would use it all the time... that I would start making my own clothes, and Bugs clothes, and that I would even learn how to make him and Monk some clothes! (Do you know how hard it is to find patterns for guys?! Seriously!) Well, In the first year I had the machine, I managed to make a couple of coats for Dusty, make a couple pillows and make a Cat in the Hat costume for a friend of mines son. Other than that... it's not really been used. I feel kinda sad about this really. I have this perfectly good sewing machine just sitting in my closet!

Well, I finally bit the bullet and decided that I was going to make my own Easter dress this year! I got out my handy Chic & Simple Sewing and picked Sam and I picked one out. It was pretty easy! I can admit that I did get a little confused reading the directions on how to put the neck together. It does have illustrations, but, not really knowing anything about sewing, I didn't really get what it was saying. It still looks very nice tho! :-)

In all it took me about 8 hours to make the dress. 1 hour of it was just making that white neck sash!! ACK! It was about 12:30AM when I got to that, and I spent an hour just turning it right side out, and that was with Sams help! LOL I had to laugh in the morning tho. I magically woke up at 6:30 (yes... after 4.5 hours of sleep, I woke up without an alarm.) and decided that I was going to finish up the last bit while everyone was sleeping. There wasn't much left, just hemming the bottom and cutting all the loose threads. I couldn't get the stinking thing to lay flat while I was hemming, so I just used some bias tape and sewed it right up! Everyone really liked it! I'm still in the losing weight section of time right now, so, it didn't fit PERFECT, but, it did fit well. The only thing I would have liked to have changed was the arm loop for the side that doesn't have a tie was a bit too tight for my liking. Of course, I'm used to wearing t-shirts about 95% of the time, the other 4% I'm wearing tank tops, and 1% closer fitting clothes.

Monkey finally got his wish of having his mohawk up and wearing his new sunglasses. He was happier than a pig in poo!! He looks so handsome in his khaki pants and mint green shirt. His hair is getting really long as well! Our Associate Pastor and him have a pretty good understanding of he wants to be like him when he grows up, which is fine by me. Our Associate Pastor is so very nice, and very down to Earth. You wouldn't think by looking at him (and his 2ft tall mohawk) that he would be such an awesomely nice guy!

I asked Buggy if she wanted me to make her a new dress for Easter as well, and she said no, she just wanted her reversible dress sewed up. I'm not quite sure if it's meant to be reversible, but, it has a cute pattern on either side, and no tag, so, she can chose to wear the paisley side, or the polka dot side. She chose the polka dot side. (I think she might have it on backwards, but with no tag, there's no way to tell!! LOL)

Unfortunately, we didn't get a family shot, or even a me & the kids shot! We went to the early service (9:30) because Monk and I were helping in the nursery for the 2nd service. I was in with the babies (under 1) and Monk was helping in the 2-3 year olds. There were 11 babies in the nursery! Apparently in the 4-5 year olds there were 22!! ACK! I couldn't imagine that many in a room no bigger than a bedroom!! LOL

Anyways... I know you're dying to see a picture of ME in the dress... so... here it is!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I'm off to pour some candles, and make another dress!! I also got a very nice silky purple fabric that I will use with the white to make another dress. I'll post again when I get it done! :-)