Pumpkin Carving and Going Green!

On Sunday afternoon, we had my folks over for some pumpkin carving, bbq ribs, and of course Lilly time. My mom had gotten a pumpkin at Lowe's foods, while ours was from a pumpkin farm (and as I mentioned before Fitz wanted the wartie pumpkin). So when the carving started, we soon realized the wartie pumpkin has much thicker then the store bought (more traditional looking pumpkin). So as my Dad easily carved, cored, and carved some more....Fitz has to resort to more aggressive means of carving....in come the electric jig-saw. I managed to get some footage on video, and I'll try to up load it. But the short version is that when knives don't work....bring out the power tools. From the pumpkin we made sweet and salty pumpkin seeds and baby food and cookies from the pumpkin meat. Then the remainder of the pumpkin went to the compose for our garden next spring. The seeds were consumed very quickly and the cookies did not last two days. The jack-o-lanterns are on their way over to my folks house for Halloween as we will be visiting friends as we drive all over the state on our way to Asheville.

In other news, as of yesterday, our kick ball team is tied for 1st place with 3 other teams with 2 games remaining. Then we found out the playoffs are going to be played over a tues/thurs pair in the coming weeks. Lilly is recovering from a cold, and a flu shot. She is very active and is starting to realize that she will be moving soon and often gets annoyed when she can't do what she wants. Last night, while taking a bath, she pulled herself to standing and then did not know what to do so she sat back down. Glad we are in full swing of baby proofing the house?! Won't be long now!

Pumpkin Patch Photos...

We did a quick trip to a pumpkin patch to purchase a pumpkin and take some photos with Lilly in her "costume." Lilly is like a good witch/spirit of halloween/halloween ballerina, but in any case she is SUPER cute!! Our friends Missy, Wes, and their little boy John Lincoln met us there so we could take photos of each other. Fitz, of course, had to buy a pumpkin and he just HAD to pick out the wartie-est pumpkin to buy. We are hoping to take some more photos tomorrow morning while Lilly is happy first thing in the morning, and then carve our pumpkins and leave them at my folks house (since we will not be here for halloween). Hopefully, everyone is enjoying getting ready for the festivities!!

Anniversary come and gone...

My Mom sent me an email this morning reminding me that two years ago today I was competing in the race of all races (for me at least)....The Hawaii Ironman. I know that the 2008 IM has come and gone but this is my two year anniversary. It's around 9am EST, which means it's 3am in Hawaii, and I think I was already up two years ago. Boy, has life changed....I was in the best shape of my life, trying to break 11 hours...and this morning I awoke to a hungry baby with a poopie diaper. I can say that both days are equally as rewarding, from pushing myself to what I thought was the limit of my capabilities (before child birth of course) to having more influence then anyone else on another human being. I can remember bits and pieces of the race that day; starting with a rainbow while waiting in line for the port-o-john, to babbling about needing to pump up my tires (but not knowing how), to having a volunteer help me figure out where the swim start was (I was a bit nervous),to treading water for what seemed like forever, to the bike turn around, to the wind that no one else felt on the way back, to loosing myself around mile 70, to finding myself again at mile 85, to feeling every emotion possible on the run, to wondering how there were that many people named "Becky" around me (I did not know people were looking up my number to find my name), to loosing myself again at mile 14, to seeing Peter Reid in the NEL (for real I did), to watching 11 hours pass on my watch with 2.4 miles left to run, to the final push to the finish line and feeling no greater amount of accomplishment in the world!! I don't think I can ever thank my family and friends who supported me all that time ago....I don't think I could have done as well without the encouragement, training partners, and all that my family did!! I hope to go back someday and break my 11 hour mark. This might even give me the "fire under my butt" to start really training again. I think I'll go look at the photos from St. Croix, and Hawaii and maybe go for a run with Lilly!!

Da-dunt, Da-dunt, Da-dunt...

(that's suppose to be the sound from JAWS). Have you ever had a fear that is unconfounded? Or known that something COULD be there, but never actually seen it, so it could not actually be real? Well, yesterday my Dad and Fitz got a rude awake up to what we share the ocean with...SHARKS. We (me, Fitz, Lilly, my Mom, and my Dad) headed to the beach yesterday mid-day to drive on the beach abit, get our toes in the sand and let the men-folk do some surfing. On our way to the water we ran in to some friends were running on the beach, and the lady mentioned that due to the menhaden running there were an abundance of bull sharks in the water so be careful. Covered in neoprene, the men hit the water. While Lilly was having fun "dancing" with her toes in the sand, we occasionally looked up to check on Fitz and my Dad. Suddenly, they were paddling in at pretty quick pace (and with their feet out of the water), but then when they got out they were heading away from us down the beach, so I thought they were looking for a better spot. But....oh..no...was I ever wrong. They had a shark sighting, in one of the waves they had been trying to catch. It is about a 5 footer, and scared the crap out of them. My Dad who has been surfing since he was young had never seen a shark up close and personal in all his years of surfing, and this gave him the willies. After they had calmed down a bit, they recounted that the shark had been less then 20ft from them and was in kill mode for the fish that were running. I think they both had nightmares last night. So although there is surf/swell today due to the storm off shore and the NE winds...no surfing for this family...we like all of our body parts just where they are. Here's to not being confused for a fishy!

Tutu Photo Session Take Two

Since Lilly is 6 months old, I thought it was around time to do another tutu photo session. Lilly is doing so much better sitting up and so I could get some really good shots. We of course had to start the photo shoot at 7:30am, right after the first morning feeding ended. I was able to look at some of these in black and white and they are awesome, now I just need to be able to do that on the computer. The next step is photos after this is to take photos of Lilly standing, I think we have sometime until that happens.

North Carolina Seafood Festival!!

Here are some photos from the NC Seafood fest and the beach trip on Saturday. We started the day cheering on the road race and then watching people enjoy the beer wagon post race (you can see even Lilly wanted in on the action). Then we met up with Tara and Matt, who were here to celebrate their 5th wedding Anniversary, to head downtown to enjoy the sights, sounds, and flavors of the festival. We had a GREAT time...we enjoyed the people watching, coconut shrimp, cajun shrimp pita, and of course "sea spud." The lines were too long at the sweet corn, but I'll be sure to get some next year. Lilly got her first time of feeding solid foods outside of the home, and it got MESSY! But all in all a great time on the waterfront. Then we come back to the house to meet up with our other good buddies Katie and Dugan to hit the beach in the "bruzer" bronco and got to get our toes wet while Lilly napped in the car. Fun times! We capped off the night with dinner away from the babies and a few drinks (well for 5 of the 6 of us.....and I WAS one of the 5) at one of the local favorites the Beaufort Grocery. Although, it did not live up to the prior meals we have had there, we had a great time with great friends. Can't beat that....and there is no price I would not pay for fun time with those friends in particular!! Hopefully, everyone had as good of a time as I did!! (please note the photos are out of order due to having to load them in two batches...oh well!)

4x4 and sweet potato wars!

We got to test out our new Ford Bronco on the beach yesterday (Oct 1 the beaches open for driving). It sure is nice not to have to walk all that way carrying a baby, I am looking forward to spending lots of evenings on the beach in our new ride. I think Fitz is really enjoying his "man car." We don't have enough money at this time to create a whole man cave for Fitz to go and relax in, but we could find the funds to buy a nice man car for him to hang out in. He takes it whenever he can (like on his ice cream run this evening)...I think he's starting to get embarrassed at driving "irongirl."

In Lilly news, we tried some home made sweet potatoes this evening and she seemed to really like them. At the end of the meal she looked like the sweet potato and joined forces with the apples to attack her. I think she enjoys "solid foods," we are taking them slow to make sure she is not allergic to any thing, but so far so good. I have made a ton of foods for Lilly to try and they are frozen away for testing. We also think Lilly might be a lefty, she grabs much more often with her left hand. While eating, she is always trying to feed herself using....you guessed it....her left hand. I know my dad is a lefty, and my uncle mark is a lefty...but we are not sure of anyone else. It's so exciting to watch and be a part of Lilly's development.

Quick RANT...

So if I dress her in pink....put bowes in her hair (or at least on her head).... and freakin' call her LILLY!! WHY, tell me WHY do you ask me ...."So how old is the little fella?" FREAKIN' PINK....PINK....what mother in her right mind would put a boy in PINK. It's a SHE....gosh darn it...a SHE!!

Just had to get that off my chest!