It's A Parade!!!

We live in a town that loves to celebrate. Today's celebration was of children and their pets!

The City Parks and Recreation have a "Pet and Pup Parade" every year. The point is to create a theme for you and your pet and then parade down Main Street. There are prizes given at the end, although I'm not sure what the criterion are. I think you get a prize if you dress up.

Last night, my sister said that Doodle Bug wanted to participate this year, since they now have a "pup" and wanted to know if Abby would be interested. Abby LOVES to dress up, so I thought this would be right up her alley.

However, when it came time to dress-up this morning, she was a little less than enthused. I'm not sure why. She also would not agree to any of the themes I was trying to suggest. "Beauty and the Beast," my personal favorite, was NOT at all agreeable in her mind.

Finally, we started pulling things out of her dress-up chest and trying them on Mrs. N. (our older dog). We put a pink skirt on her and then a ribbon tutu. Billy suggested the fairy wings. We also added a couple beaded necklaces and a tiara.

Abby decided this may be fun after all and agreed to put on her white dress with Minnie Mouse veil. I'm not sure what kind of "theme" this was, but at least they were both dressed up.


There were some cute "themes" parading today: Sonny and Cher (the dog was Sonny) and a sibling group that dressed up as The Wizard of Oz characters (I'm not sure what the pet was -- maybe Toto). Sorry, no pictures of these.

Doodle Bug and her dog Callie dressed as Soccer Players! They were so cute! Here we all are, ready to line up for the parade. Notice the tiara on my head. It didn't last too long on the dog.

Obviously, this parade is a City tradition, because at the head of the parade was the American Legion Color Guard. You can't have a prade without the American Flag!

Here is the offical Parade Banner!

And you can see behind the banner is the Middle School Band. A Marching Band!!! We are official!

And off we go!

Actually, by this point, Abby is so excited to be in a real parade. She marched the entire way! Because that's what you do when you're in a parade. You MARCH!

When she saw the video of herself, she was a little disappointed that you couldn't see her legs very well because of the length of the dress. She wanted to see herself marching!

The rest of the family came out and stood on Main Street to watch the parade go by. The girls had fun waving and marching. Abby and Doodle Bug both got prizes. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful Autumn morning.

Wordless Wednesday

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It's Official

I signed up for my first ever 5k run. I paid money and everything! And, I will get a spiffy t-shirt to wear with pride as I cross the finish line.

I think I've alluded to the fact that, in my mind, I see myself as a runner. I can run like a gazelle with long strides. The wind in my face... the pavement stretching out behind me... with the theme of "Chariots of Fire" playing in the background. Lovely, isn't it?

The plain truth is that, until recently, I never ran. What I mean to say is that I could not run to the end of the street without stopping half-way to catch my breath.

Somewhere, my visions and reality did not match up.

Enter on the stage, my sister. Her daughter runs Cross Country for the High School team. Last fall, we would go and watch her and cheer her on. Somewhere along the way, my sister decided that she wanted to compete in the local 5k held every October. Her decision inspired me.

She started training that winter. I took a little longer to get into the swing of things. This past spring, we started walking together on a regular basis. While our pace was far from running, you gotta start somewhere. Plus, we were both pushing "baby" strollers. A little resistance training never hurt anyone. :)

Every once in a while, we would run, but I still couldn't go very far. I was consistently walking, but the running was few and far between. My brain wasn't really engaged in the running. I knew I wasn't going to run the race until the fall. So I would tell myself, "I'll run to the next block... or the next tree... or the next house." You get the idea. I don't even remember the first time I ran a whole mile. I do remember thinking, "how am I going to run three of these?"

At the end of August, I decided to get my brain in gear. I downloaded this running schedule, tweaked it a little, and got to work. Now, I'm running 3 days a week, increasing the distance a little each time.

One day, as I was running, I had an epiphany: I can't tell myself, "run to the next marker." I just have to keep running. No boundary lines. Just keep going. Pace myself, yes. But keep on going. It's like hearing Dory singing, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming... what do we do? We swiiiiiiiiiiimmmm."

The race is Saturday, October 27. I'm in week two of the eight-week schedule. I'm excited about the process.

Anyone, care to join me?

First Day Of Pre-School

The day has finally come! The day she has been waiting months to arrive!

Abby was so excited. I was afraid there might be tears, but I guess all the preparation paid off. And Mommy didn't cry, either.

With her new teacher

Her favorite thing about the day? The snack was chocolate pudding! Yummy.

The funny part was, she thought that "school" was only for one day and then she was done. I told her, "No, you won't be done with school for several more years!"

Abby "Reads" A Bedtime Story

A couple of the blogs I read have a link to a video of a little girl reciting the 23rd Psalm. How precious.

My little one doesn't quote scripture, but she can recite a library book. Take a look.

Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned!

About a week ago, during the rainstorm that flooded most of Ohio, we finally had a break in the clouds one afternoon. The dogs had not been out much (or at all) that day as they are scared of the storms.

Side note: if a crack of thunder doesn't wake you up in the middle of the night, a dog standing over you and panting loudly in your face surely will!

Because our Dog Walker recently quit, stating reasons like Soccer, and Cross Country, and Homework -- whatever, I decided that Abby and I could at least walk them around the block a little to stretch their legs and get. out. of. the. house. Did I mention it had been raining for several days?

So we started out and took our familiar path around Sweet-Smelling Flower Blvd. Abby was holding the leash of our least resistant dog (the Mrs.) and took off running down the street. She ran practically the whole way. I and the Mr. came along behind. Somewhere along the way, Abby got tired of holding the leash and gave it to me.

Several minutes later, I thought the Mrs. was stopping to sniff a tree but looked back just in time to see her depositing her waste in the grass. OH, NO!! I had not brought anything with which to pick it up. I hate when that happens and had often told my Dog Walkers to not let that happen.

I quickly glanced around to see if anyone was watching. Whew! I didn't think anyone had seen.

But then I noticed what house we were in front of. It was the neighborly family that posts Bible Scriptures on placards in the front lawn.

Today's message was this: "Be sure your sins will find you out!"

Yep! I guess so!

WW-Watching From The Sidelines

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