Not enough time in the day!

I just looked at the clock and realized that it is now ten after 10:00. My hope was to be in bed 40 minutes ago. So what am I doing with my time these days??? For those of you that I have not talked to I started graduate school this fall. I am attending David Lipscomb University as the first class to go through the Masters of Exercise Science and Nutrition program. I am taking 9 hours while I continue to work full time. I am not sure that I really thought this through a few months ago because the demand of the classes are starting to catch up to me. I really enjoy the classes but am SOO busy now. So wish me luck as I continue with my school work this fall.

Along with school and work, both Marisa and Alex are playing soccer this fall. It has been a lot of fun going to Marisa's games and tournaments with her travel team, again it is just very time consuming. This weekend we are going to Hendersonville for a tournament, that is if the rain will STOP. Carlos is the assistant coach for Alex's YMCA soccer team. The first game went ok, very entertaining for the parents. At one point, Alex was wandering off the field going towards the woods. He did have a goal...well he dribbled to the goal and then at the last second decided to throw the ball into the goal. More importantly, he told me that he is having fun!

And then as if I did NOT have enough already on my plate, I am playing soccer with my women's soccer team that I have been a part of for 7 years now. Our first game was a success, we walked away with a W and I even had a goal! And Carlos is playing on his men's softball team, which I may have already mentioned.

Gretel is doing well! She is still just as cute as ever even if she is not the smartest. We often refer to her as "special needs."

Carlos and myself have been so busy, but we did manage to go out this past weekend to a friends engagement party. It was nice to visit with friends and see some that I have not seen in a while. It is hard to believe that a year ago, Carlos and I had our engagement party and that we are quickly approaching our one year wedding anniversary! We had always thought that going back to Maui would be great, however with trying to sell the condo and everything else going on we decided to do something a little bit more low key. We are going to go to Destin for an extended weekend. It should be fun! We always have a good time in Florida.
Carlos and the guys at Wrigley Field for a recent boys weekend.

Me, Carlos, and Laura at Charlie & Shannon's engagement Party!

I hope to be back this weekend with pics and updates of the kiddies activites and events!!

So far behind

First of all I should apologize to anyone who actually continues to try and keep up to date with our lives and have been sadly disappointed with my inability to keep this blog updated. whew! That was a mouthful and I'm sure improper grammar. But you know what I am saying=) Funny enough as I type this, I am eyeing the clock and yelling down the hallway to Marisa making sure she is ready to leave for soccer practice in 5 minutes. So you have now already figured out this will be short. HOWEVER, I really enjoy this blog and am seriously going to try to make it more of a priority. I want to share the kids activities (which at the moment there are PLENTY) and update you on our selling and hopefully purchasing a new home, as well as share some fun recipes I hope to make this fall. I have started Graduate school and Carlos is playing "old man softball." That is what I call it, but if you asked him each night he plays it is like the World Series =) So I gotta run. I am going to leave you with some pics of the summer as long as I can download them on here. (I'm working from my new laptop which I purchased on tax free weekend) Ok will be back soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRETEL!!!!

July 1st was Gretel's 1st Birthday!!

More Marisa Activities

This past Spring was a very busy time of the year for us, in particular due to the many activities that Marisa had going on. We were doing soccer, softball, and dance. Dance has been a lot of fun for Marisa. Her teacher is actually one of the teachers from my mom's school - Ms. Missy. Both Marisa and Alex love her, she is so good with the kids. She even thinks Alex might have a future in Hip Hop =) So to end the year, Marisa was in a recital. She had a ballet and tap number. Here she is backstage getting ready to perform.


The other activity, actually the one that was the most time involved, was softball. Typically she had practice one night and then games on Tuesday nights and Saturdays. They had a pretty good team. The girls decided on the team name - Purple Pirates! It was actually kindof fun this year. The girls would field the ball and 75% of the time they knew where to make the play. Their skills improved so much as well, throwing, fielding, and hitting all got better as the season progressed. Marisa played pitcher, catcher and center field a bunch. They finished 3rd in the Civitan tournament, but had a great season.

This is a picture taken at the begining of the season. I believe it was a Wednesday night that we had to make up due to all the rain we got. It was a rather chilly evening. There were some new rules as well this year. Marisa moved up to the U8/U9 and each girl would get 5 pitches, however if you swung and missed 3 times, you struck out...no more bringing the T out to hit off of.

Ok, I just had to share these guys!!! For the end of the season party, they had a pool party and I agreed to bring some sort of dessert. After a little research, I found this recipe for buried treaure pirate cupcakes. Not only do they look extremely cute, there is a peanut butter cup hidden inside the cupcake. The girls, and parents too, thought they were very cute. I think they were good too =) Alex says they were.

Country Music Marathon Weekend

Two weeks ago was the CMMarathon here in Nashville. This was Marisa's first year to do the kids marathon. We ran 25.2 miles the weeks before the marathon. The last week alone she ran something like 15 miles!!! We didn't plan as well as we should have, but she was a trooper and got the mileage in. She and I ran several afternoons over at the park and my mom helped by taking her over to the local high school and let her run on the track. I think one of the last runs she told me that she would NOT be doing this next year. I was like OK, we'll see =)

So after her last mile run on the actual course and crossing the finish line and shaking Jeff Fisher's hand, she excitedly told me that she WILL do this next year. I told her we will make a schedule and stick to it.

I wish I had timed her last mile because one minute she started the race and by the time I could get to the finish line, there she was!! We know for sure she had made some progress on her time. The first mile she ran was right under 12 minutes (11:50 I believe). One of the next runs was under 11:30, then 11:00. I would bet she did her final run in ~10:00!

Now onto me....here I am super excited about my marathon, hoping to beat my time from last year! Let me just inform you that my last training run had been 2 weeks prior to race day and was 51 degrees, I had worn a long sleeve shirt even. At the start of the race it was already 70 degrees, at mile 1 I overhead a lady comment that is was 73 degrees!!! One other thing I should mention, my runner's knee had been hurting so I knew I might have problems there as well. So I started at 7:35 and was feeling really good, I was staying with the 4:45 pace team. I was even ahead of them for a few miles. So feeling good all the way up until mile 9 when I stopped to eat part of a bar, get water, pop some more tylenol, and make a port a potty stop. Got back on course and I could REALLY feel the heat(it ended up getting to 85 degress that day). My body was not ready for that! My knee was hurting and I as I hit mile 10, next 11 I could tell I was majorly slowing down and I was NOT going to get the time I was hoping for so I made a hard decision and split off with the half marathoners. I know I made the right decision at the time, but I often look back and wonder if I gave it my all. I finished in not even my best half time, but I finished!!

I am not sure if another full marathon is in my future or not. My knee may not let that happen, but there will be more halfs and now I plan on working on that time.

Zoo Day

Each year we go to the Nashville Zoo during "Z" week at the preschool. This year the weather was beautiful, in fact it was hot! Alex really enjoyed the animals, he constantly talked about seeing the giraffes from the moment we arrived. We packed our lunches and before leaving the kids played on the giant playground. It was just a good day!

At one point, Alex and my Mom got seperated from me. She took him to see a panda and told Alex what it was and this is what he did (pic below). Mom was cracking up, she wasn't sure why he did this but it was funny (actually I didn't know at the time either what he was doing). So any of you that have seen Kung Fu Panda, does this look familiar? I was told that this is from the movies. We own the movie, but I've never seen it (yet), but Carlos and Alex have and when I told Carlos about this he was laughing as well. Anyways, still not exactly sure what it means, but if you have seen the movie then maybe you will get a laugh out of this as well =) Marisa came with us for the day (she played hooky for the day). I can remember taking her to the zoo when she was Alex's age.

The elephants were carrying big sticks...not sure what else to say about this.

And finally, one of the last stops before calling it a day...the giraffes!!

Mom and Alex looking at the giraffes.

Chances are we will be back to the zoo again this summer at some point when Carlos can come with us.

David's Birthday and Easter...I am a bit behind..

...these last few weeks or month really have been super busy for us. Marisa is playing soccer and softball along with doing dance one day during the week. Alex isn't into sports yet, but he always keeps us busy. So I suppose that was my apology to you guys...sorry! Didn't mean to neglect the blog and keep you out of the loop.

So my brother's birthday (as well as my dear friend Laura) was a month ago on April 9th. We had dinner over my Dad and Kris' house one night and we brought the birthday boy a few presents. Alex loves helping people open presents. Here he is giving David a hand with the gifts. Easter was fun as always. We went over to our friend Vicki's house and had a wonderful brunch. After we stuffed ourselves, the kids had an Easter egg hunt. Vicki's nieces and good friends of Marisa's are Lauren and Tori and our good friends Justin & Britney and their little boy Jaxon were among the kids that hunted for eggs. The kids hated us taking this picture because it is taken on the front porch of Vicki's house and several of the eggs were in view and they were dying to go hunt. This was one of the better pictures.

Marisa stopped for a brief second so that I could get a picure. She ended up with 2 baskets of eggs!

Do I really even have to explain?! Alex did much better this year. He actually hunted for several eggs before he stopped mid-hunt to open an egg and eat the candy.

The whole Chapman/Ballesteros Family (left to right): David, Mom, Beth, Adidas, Marisa, Alex, Carlos, and myself. Happy Easter! Ok so that is so belated just count it towards next year =)

I realize I have several more pictures I want to post. I have to go get pumpkin bread out of the oven that Alex and I baked, but I plan on putting up another post tonight. Who knows, maybe I will totally catch up by the end of the weekend!

Spring Happenings!

A while back, Carlos and I took the kids to the Adventure Science Museum. They had a good time. In particular, we spent a lot of time in the "Human body" exhibit. It was pretty neat if I say so myself. There were all kinds of things to see and read about regarding all the different body parts and systems. You were even lucky enough to take a tour through the digestive tract. After shooting out of the colon (a slide) you landed on a mat that made a fun noise that sounded like a fart!! The kids thought it was funny...so did I =) The last thing we did before leaving was to climb up the center of the museum. I was unaware how far up you could climb. But we made it to the VERY top. You could look out and see downtown Nashville. Alex was too busy to look at me, but Marisa stopped to cheese for the camera. Another exhibit had wheelchairs that you could use. As you can see, the three of them had fun!

So soccer has started this spring. Alex needed to "test" the snacks out that I had brought for the team afterwards. I can always count on him when it comes to food.

Marisa takes the field!!

And to wrap things up, here is Gretel! I found her the other night on her pillow with this soccer ball. It was a perfect photo op. She is doing very well. Accidents in the house really have become less and I like to think that she has come to recognize us as family now. One funny thing, Alex refers to her as "Miss Gretel" whenever he is talking to or about her.

Things are pretty busy with us here. Trying to get houses on the market and find a new home. Soccer and softball are in full swing now. Hoping that the weather will get warmer. I heard today that we might see snow fluries on Monday!! Marisa is in Disneyworld with my mom for the week. Next week is Spring Break, so I am staying home Mon-Wed to be with Alex and then Carlos will stay with him for Thurs and Friday. I have a few things planned for us and hope to take some pictures. So look forward for an update soon!

Apology

I apologize again for taking a few weeks to make a post. The weather here has not been cooperating and Marisa has already missed 2 soccer games and several soccer and softball practices due to rain =( Her first game went really well and I have pictures and would love to share them, but for whatever reason my camera and computer are not allowing me to upload the photos...likely it is just operator error. I will try again later. Marisa's first softball game is on Tuesday night, so I will try to get a few action photos then and make another post. Sorry for the not so exciting post. Everyone is doing well though and ready for a fun and busy spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I hope that this will work and you will be able to view our fun St. Patty's Day dance. Alex and Marisa love it, and I have to admit it makes me smile and laugh each and every single last time we watch it....and we do watch it OVER and OVER and OVER. Did I mention that Alex in particular LOVES this!!! Hope everyone is having a good St. Patrick's Day this year and enjoying a green beer or two. We are off to decorate sugar cookies now with green icing and green M&M's after we clean up the kitchen from dinner...which was BBQ beef cups with green applesauce!! I love playing with the kids!!!

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An evening at home

Tonight Carlos helped put together one of Alex's Christmas' presents. I realize it has been about a month and a half since the holidays, but the first attempt at putting the bike together did not turn out so well. The on/off button was messed up and so while you were in the middle of a game it just turned off. So the Smart Cycle is now together and operating! Alex is still not great at pedaling, but he really likes the idea of the game.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the living room was Marisa reading a book for shcool. Not much to say about that really. She is a great reader and more importantly she really loves reading. Not sure how long that will last, but for the time being it is great to see her so excited about it.

Gretel up and about. She won't stay still for a picture.

Alex and Gretel. Just wanted to point out in this picture something that humors us, meaning myself, Carlos and my mom. Alex is sitting with his feet crossed. The boy has done this since he was an infant. It was cute then and we would always comment "Oh how cute he has his legs crossed!" He has always crossed them right at the ankles..not sure why we have thought it was so cute, but now it's just funny that he still does it. His feet are so cute!! He calls them his "donkey feet."

Not pictured, but we also made sugar cookies tonight and decorated them for Valentine's Day! While Alex was really just interested in eating the cookie dough, we were able to get a few decorated. Marisa really enjoyed it!!! She is very creative and is my little artist and loves cooking....so decorating cookies is right up her alley.

I also should mention that Marisa has decided to do the kid's Country Music Marathon this year! I am so excited for her. The way it works is that she will complete 25.2 miles on her own prior to the marathon. The night before the marathon, the kids will acually run the last mile of the marathon and get to run into LP Field stadium and cross the finish line where Jeff Fisher congratulates the kids. Tonight, Marisa and myself went to the park and ran her first mile. She ran the entire mile talking to me the entire time. It seemed so natural to her. We finished in 11:52...not too bad. I know many adults who could not run a mile in that time. I told her she needed to keep a running log of all her runs and times, which she has already recorded today's run. Who knows maybe she will be a runner too?!

Jump Zone!

Last week, Alex was invited to a party at Jump Zone for his friend Grayson's 3rd Birthday. It was "open play" as well so siblings could come play (for a small fee, of course). So Marisa joined in on the fun. I was able to get in a few pictures of them as they were running around going from inflatable to inflatable. I could not get this kid to stand still for half of a second for a photo op!!

Marisa and I were proud of ourselves for getting this picture. This was actually our second attempt of getting her going down the slide. The first time, she was out of the shot by the time my camera actually snapped the photo.

Alex jumping!!!!

Marisa climbing!!!

They both had a great time. And lucky for us, we get to return to Jump Zone this Saturday for yet another fun birthday party. We will help Alex's buddy Max turn 3 at this party. So while the events are a bit redundant for me, if it were up to Alex he would go to "Gym" a.k.a. Jump Zone every day!!

I'm doing it again!

Some of you already know that I have decided to run the Country Music Marathon once again. For those of you who didn't know, now you do.

I am still in the begining of my long runs...so far I have gotten up to 10 miles. I forgot just how time consuming the training can be. Last week, I took the week off due to a slight foot injury. Actually, I am not sure what I did, but the bottom of my left foot felt like there was a huge bruise. It was really sore. I am hoping to get another 10 mile run in this week.

As far as I know, Carlos has once again agreed to meet me at mile 20 and run the last 6 with me. Last year, he was fantastic!! I remember doing so great and feeling pretty good by that point. I knew I was ahead of my 20 mile training run by 5 minutes and was thinking I was going to beat my predicted time. Little did I know that at about mile 22 my body felt as if it were falling apart. My knees and back were screaming at me!!! Carlos got me some tylenol and encouraged me on. I have heard that you can break the marathon up into 2 parts: 1) the first 20 miles and 2) the last 6 miles. I now know what they mean by that. I also remember how AMAZING it felt when I was running the last .2 miles into the stadium to the finish line. The picture above is me at that point. It's true, adrenaline just takes over. I felt like I was floating and all the pain I had been feeling for the previous hour was gone. I was so happy and almost in tears of amazement that I was doing it...I was going to FINISH my first marathon!!!!! Honestly, I think I am just waiting for that feeling again come April 25th =0)

My goals for this marathon inclue:

1. Make it to the START line without any further injury

2. Beat my time from last year.

3. Become a better runner/athlete

4. Have fun on the course!!!

Weekend Wrap Up

I was really looking forward to this past weekend, that is until Friday night when Carlos discovered the water heater leaking water!!! So luckily my Dad was able to help us out, but that took up the entire day on Saturday. So Sunday we started off in hopes of a better day.

Alex has been asking since last Thursday night for a chocolate donut...so Sunday morning we went to Krispy Kreme and treated him to a chocolate donut which he devoured in about 2 minutes. I had also ordered a dozen football shaped donuts for Superbowl Sunday...they were very cute and extremely tasty! We were fortunate to have beautiful weather on Sunday. We went over to my Mom's house to let Alex run around and play on the swing set and enjoy being outside. He had a blast!! Actually it ended up being myself, Carlos, Alex, my brother and his dog as well as Gretel. I should address that my Mom and Marisa were not present because they were on there way home from Georgia visiting my sister, Beth. Her birthday was Friday...Happy Birthday Beth!!!

I kept trying to get him to smile for the picure without any luck. I forgot how much I enjoy swinging too!

Tucker and Gretel playing. Tucker is about 10 times her size but she loves rolling around and playing with him. In fact, the majority of the time she initiates the playing.

And one more of Gretel!!

It's on my TO DO List!

I feel like I have been saying this a LOT. Seriously, I do have update my blog on the list and I plan on doing so this weekend. Sorry about my abscence, I have been busy the last couple of weekends and have not really taken any pictures = nothing really exciting to post. But soon, our lives will be so busy!! Marisa is officially signed up for soccer, softball, and dance now. Alex is always busy and entertaining. And I will get some new pictures of Gretel. So I will be back very soon!

My Boys

Just a real quick post...last weekend the whole family went to a wedding. Marisa was actually the flower girl and did a great job! I think we are going to start a flower girl business...she told me she is going to make a webiste called "Flower Girl for Hire." She is so funny. Anyways, before we left I wanted to get a picture of Alex mainly in his tie and jacket. He looked so handsome, as well as Carlos. The wedding was very nice and we all had a good time. Congrats to Justin and Brittany!!!