"Go Pull up that Tree!"

So, April is a big birthday month for my family. April 4th is my birthday, April 22nd is my sister's day, April 24th is Mike's twin brother and sister's birthday and today, April 27th is my brother-in-law, David's birthday. And it's a BIG one! He's the big 4-0 today!

I was sitting here this morning thinking back on some funny stories that have included David over the years and just had to post this one in particular. Deb and David have known each other since they were really young. We all grew up in the same church. It wasn't until they were in college though that they started dating. Deb went away to college for a couple of years and then came back home to live and finish out the last couple of years at a local University. David went to college not too far from St. Louis and would always come home on the weekends to see Deb.

This one weekend in particular, David happened to be driving my awesome blue Ford Escort. (It had automatic seat belts. You know the kind that came up and over the window when you turned on the car. I was basically awesome.) I don't know what was up with David's car and why he had mine, but his car was a stick shift and mine was an automatic. Being his usual "excited to see my sister" self, he came flying up my mom and dad's hill, into the driveway, "parked" my car, and came running inside to see his love. Now, I don't know where my mom and dad were, but it was just me and Deb at the house. We saw him coming up the hill from the front door and as he walked inside, one of us looked out only to see my car rolling backwards down the hill. It was on its way over the neighbors retaining wall and into what could have only been described as a potential disaster. Deb screamed, David tore out the door and ran like I've never seen that scrawny boy run toward the car to try and stop it.

Thankfully, my mom and dad have a tree in the yard and the car rolled right into it. Leaving tire tracks in the grass all along the way. David hopped in the car, pulled it back into the driveway, PUT IT IN PARK this time, and pulled the emergency brake. So, this is where it gets funny.

When he got the car back into the driveway, we look out and notice that the tree is now like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's not a giant tree, but it's a pretty good size. We all kind of stand there and stare at each other wondering how we are going to eradicate the situation before mom and dad get home and see it. So, being the leader of the group, Deb tells me and David to "GET OUT THERE and GO PULL UP THAT TREE!" Now, why she thought we could do that and why we listened to her is beyond me, but out we both went (she's standing inside yelling orders out the door), and the 2 of us start pulling with all our might to stand this tree back up straight.

It's. Not. Budging. She's yelling, "PULL HARDER!" So, without any arguing, we pull harder. Nothing. At this point, you'd think we would be done with Deb and her brilliant ideas, but OH NO, we weren't. She yells out the door, "Ok, maybe mom and dad won't notice the tree if the tire tracks in the grass are covered up!" "Go grab up some leaves and spread them in the tracks!" (Why are we agreeing to this?). So, out the 2 idiots go to collect our leaves. We scatter them all over the tire tracks and come inside, pretty proud of ourselves. We now have two lines of leaves in the grass and a leaning tree. Surely mom and dad will never notice this.

A little bit of time goes by and we see mom and dad coming up the hill. David was nervous. How do you explain this to your girlfriend's parents? (Why we thought they'd be mad is beyond me. My mom and dad don't get upset about much.) But, still, we were a little nervous. They walk in the door and dad goes, "What happened to the tree? Why is it leaning?" Oh what dad, you mean you weren't thrown off by the leaves covering the tire tracks?! How on earth did Deb's wondrous plan not work?

We begin laughing and tell them the story, to which they also laughed. The more we talked about it, the funnier it got. And the more we talked about it, the more David and I wondered why we listened to Deb in the first place and why wasn't she out there "pulling the tree" with us?!

Dad did some kind of rigging to the tree and was able to pull it back up straight. It did take a while for David to live that one down though. Even nearly 20 years later it's still funny. I can still picture the look of panic on David's face when he saw the car rolling, still picture us pulling up the tree and collecting our leaves and still picture Deb at the front door telling us what we needed to do.

Happy 40th Birthday, David. Don't forget in your old age to put your car in park. You are way too old to be pulling up any trees.

:)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from the Cash family! I hope that you were able to spend this day at church celebrating the fact that our Savior is ALIVE! We had an amazing service today! After church, we were invited to have lunch with our sweet friends and had a fun time eating, visiting and hiding eggs for all the kids. It rained off and on all day so we did the egg hunt inside. The kids didn't seem to mind at all. They loaded their baskets and then opened their eggs to see all their candy and goodies. We had so much food and dessert and it was all great!

Macie and Maddie got to wear their new dresses from my friend Olivia. They looked so cute (ok, I'm biased, I know!)! Mabrie wore a sweet little dress that my friend Sarah gave to me and she looked pretty adorable, too! I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped as we were rushing out the door this morning. I really wanted a family picture, but that didn't happen. Oh well, we'll have to try another time. :)

It's been a stormy night and we've enjoyed our time at home as a family. We ate leftover ham and just relaxed all evening. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter - either with family or friends or maybe both!

Oh and not only was today Easter Sunday, but it was also Mike's twin brother and sister's 14th birthday! Happy Birthday to Vance and Vanessa! We love you and hope you had a great day!

Dresses

I just had to blog and let you see the dresses my friend Olivia made for the girl's Easter outfits. Here's the thing - I have kind of decided that Olivia is my personal seamstress. HA! I have a habit of looking at these cute, boutique websites for little girls and falling in the love with the clothes, but hating the prices! I just can't bring myself to pay more for a dress for my 5 year old than I pay for mine. I love the styles though, so it's hard to pass them up when they are just so cute! So, here's what I do - I email a picture of the dress I like to Olivia and ask her if there's any way in the world she could whip one up similar. And, what do you know, she CAN! I would give anything if I knew how to sew and create cute, unique clothes for my kids. But I don't - I can't sew a button on, so what makes me think I could whip out a dress?! Enter: Olivia!

I keep telling her that when she wants me to stop emailing her pictures of stuff I need her to make for me to just let me know! HAHA! The first one I asked her to make were these adorable knot dresses. SO CUTE! She found a pattern and made one for Maddie that was absolutely perfect. Here's a pic of my little model in it:



Told you it was cute!

So, then a couple of weeks ago, I spot this dress online and thought that it would be perfect for Easter. Not too dressy so that the girls can wear them all summer, but different and cute enough to wear on a special Sunday. The first thing that pops into my mind is, "I bet Olivia could make this!" And, of course, she can! She had me go pick out my fabrics and then a tank top to match, and voila - 2 days later, she brings me this!



There's one little thing still to add - a clip on flower that will go on the tank and just finish the dress off perfectly. I'll be getting those this week - but even without the flower it's just so cute! When she text me the picture of the dress, I literally gasped - I thought it was the picture of the dress I sent to her and when I realized it was the one she made, I couldn't believe it! It looks JUST like the one I wanted. She's so talented and so sweet! If you are interested in any of her products (she makes dresses, aprons, baby bedding and more!) - you can find her business page on facebook! Just search "Dancing Zebras" and go "like" them! Her quality is great and her prices are as well!

Thanks Olivia for always being so willing to make all these things I email you! :) I appreciate it so much! The girls are going to look so sweet on Easter morning!

We Did It!!

Yep, that's right - today Sarah, Tracy, Michelle, Donnelle, Mindy and I ran the Earth Day 5k bright and early and around 43 degrees! The day before was one of the windiest days ever and we were all a little concerned that if it didn't die down, the run could be brutal. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad. It was windy, but not terrible. There were about 100 or so runners signed up for the 5k but I think several backed out because of the temperature.

At 8:00 a.m. they kicked off the race and the 6 of us turned on our ipods and hit the road. Sarah and I stayed together the whole race - we had our pace down and it was fun to have someone run right along side of me. Her ipod has an app that would tell her the pace and distance so every once in a while she would let me know how we were doing. I wasn't too thrilled with her first report telling me we hadn't even gone a half mile and I was already feeling the pain. Started getting a little concerned at that point that I may not make it through. HA! It wasn't until around 1.5 miles that my body really warmed up and I pushed past that painful feeling and got into a groove. From there on out, it was pretty easy. When I first started running, I remember Mike telling me that I would hit a wall and feel like I would have to stop and walk and if I could just push through that then I'd be able to keep going and it's so true. You get to a point when you are running that it becomes mind over matter. Some days, my mind doesn't win. :)

The last 1/2 mile of the race was around a lake and it was a pretty narrow path. We were running single file and Sarah was in front of me and another lady was in front of her. Sarah was trying to pass and the lady wouldn't let her around. Finally, Sarah just blew by her and then I did, too. I think she was trying to beat us, but we didn't let her. :) I don't know our official times, but the clock read 29 minutes 15 sec. as I was crossing through the finish line. Sarah was the first to cross in our group - Great job, girl!

We watched the rest of the girls come through the finish line just seconds and minutes behind us. It was such a great feeling and such a great accomplishment! I was so proud of everyone! I don't know what it is about doing these races, but it really is fun. You'd think that getting up early on a Saturday morning to go run 3.1 miles wouldn't be fun, but it is always great. I love the feeling. I love getting together with friends and sharing the moment. You train and prepare for it and most of the time the training is done alone. So, when you finally get to run with a group of friends on the big day, it's just exciting!

I can't wait for our next race. We are running again on May 7th and that time there are even more girls joining us! I'm already pumped about it!

Oh and just one funny thing - last night I was thinking about the race today and ended up having 2 funny dreams. My first one was when I got to the finish line, Sarah had won the whole race - she finished in 18 minutes! HA! Then, I went into another dream - it was race day and I got to the start line and they told me I had to take some sort of pill before I could run. But, I could only take it with chicken and biscuits. I was so upset because I didn't have any chicken and biscuits and didn't know where to get some. I was really freaking out in my dream. I prepared so hard for this race and then wasn't going to be able to run because I didn't have the right food to take with my pill. Too funny! I must have been nervous last night - well, that or hungry! :)

Good job today, girls! I'm glad we were able to do this together. Looking forward to the next one! I'll make sure and have some chicken minis with me - just in case!

5K Time

This Saturday, I am running my first 5k since prior to getting pregnant with Mabrie! I'm so excited! I don't know why, but it just feels so rewarding knowing that I had a baby 7 months ago and I'm slowly getting my stamina and my body back! I had a goal of running at least 2 5k's within the first year post-delivery and I'm going to meet it and hopefully surpass it. I'm running with several friends this weekend - Sarah, Mindy, Michelle, Tracy, Donnelle and Christy. It's going to be a fun day! It's always better running with friends and sharing the experience of race day with them!

My last race, I had a goal of finishing in under 30 minutes and met that goal. This time around, my goal is to just finish without having to stop and walk! HA! I have been training for a couple months - not as much as I had hoped, but training nonetheless. The last 2 nights I have run around 2.8 miles non-stop, so I have confidence that on race day I'll be able to pull out that last little bit and finish the run in its entirety. Sarah and Mindy recently ran a relay marathon, so I'm sure they will blow right by me and be patiently waiting at the finish line when I come dragging through! :)

I'll report back this weekend to let you know how we all did - I'm sure we'll have fun and do well! I'm proud of all of us for doing it - it takes determination and time to get yourself prepared to run any type of distance race and I think we can all be proud of each other for setting a goal and meeting it! Looking forward to a fun day on Saturday!

Girls, get those ipods synched up and let's GO!

1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one runner gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.