David and Amy's Wedding Pictures

These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures that were taken. It was a beautiful Scottish wedding complete with rain and an overcast sky.

Turning Four

Alex turned 4 on October 24th. What an event. Grandma even got to fly in all the way from Canada for the big event. This is Alex's How to Train Your Dragon cake, made by my good friend Sheila. She did a fantastic job, I know it took her a long time but Toothless' face came out so cute, it looked just like him. Alex loved it. We celebrated his birthday with his friends at The Cedar Rock Railroad in Leander. We had a bagel and donut breakfast and then all walked over to the train. I didn't realize that the train tunnel was decorated for Halloween with some pretty scary characters, I think some of the little ones got a fright!

Birthday Montessori Style

After 10 years of celebrating hundreds of my students' birthdays over the years with many walks around the sun it was finally my turn to watch as Alexander got to celebrate his fourth birthday in his Montessori Casa Room. We were lucky to have Grandma Annie and Daddy both here to witness Alex's walk. In a Montessori class a birthday celebration consists of the child bringing in pictures of themselves at each year of their life and then they do a walk around the sun which is in the middle of the room, one rotation for every year of life, just like how the earth really does rotate around the sun once a year. I always had the older children say one important event that took place for every year, but the younger ones show their pictures. Alex had one of the senior students guide him around the sun as it was his first time participating in the birthday celebration at school. These are pictures of Alex and I at his celebration holding the sandpaper globe.

My Marathon Delivered

On October 17th, 2010 I ran the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque in a very respectable 4 hours and 11 minutes exactly. I can now call myself a marathoner, I am a member of the club and it took me only about 12 hours after the race to put the sticker on my car. When you run that far (without stopping) you do get bragging rights. There is a saying that goes something like this...At mile 18 you wonder what the #%@# you were running for, but at mile 26.2 the answer is perfectly clear. That pretty much sums up my marathon experience.

I can't say that running a marathon had been a huge goal of mine for a long time since I only started running less than 2 years ago, but since i started running it has always been in the not so back of mind. I guess I kind of always thought that there is no possible way I could ever do something like that. Well after 6 half marathons, 3 10k, and probably about 20 5k's it became clear that I was ready to tackle the big one. It seemed fitting that the Duke City marathon would be the one, seeing as that is where my little family grew and since my first marathon was run for Jay and Alex the decision was clear.

I can't even begin to describe the overwhelming amount of emotions that I went through during those 26 miles. From tears of pain to tears of happiness sometimes all in a one mile distance. Despite running with thousands of people, it at times is an extremely lonely and quiet road. The first half everyone is talking and happy and some even singing, but when you reach that turn around and the pain starts to set in and the pace slows down...everyone's mood changes including mine...which is a big deal for me because everyone always comments on my smile when I run. I was not smiling after mile 18. Your body thinks you should be done but you know you still have over 8 miles to go. I just kept thinking one step in front of the other, one mile at a time, no walking, no walking, no walking. Although my mood did change I did manage to thank every single person that cheered me or gave me water. All the water stops were manned by military people, I told one young soldier that he rocked for giving me water and he replied "No, you rock mam".

Since it was an out and back course you could see the winners on their way back while I was still trudging to get to the turnaround. Yes, very impressive to see their pace, and stride etc. but what impressed me more was seeing the people who were obviously struggling for various reasons (some even puking on the side) but not giving up. Seeing people of all shapes, ages and sizes and running for ALL sorts of reasons. I was passed by people twice my age and conversely I passed people half my age. You just never know what someone is capable of. Sometimes I just wanted to ask them why they were running but they would probably think I was crazy.

I just looked at the marathon pictures took by the professional photographers on the courses and I look so happy, I always seek them out and pose, I think I actually stopped at one of the photography stops and asked him how the picture turned out. I wasn't going to run a mile and have a shitty picture to show for it. No, I am not vain at all :)

A Beautiful Scottish Wedding

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Complete with drizzle and an overcast sky, not to mention tears! David and Amy were married September 25th in London at Elsie Perrin Estates. It was an absolutely gorgeous ceremony and party afterward. Everything was perfect and truly fit their personality. The photographer is in the process of sending out the professional shots but in the meantime here are a few teasers. Unfortunately I don't have one of David and Amy together but they did look fantastic.

Hugh and Ina

No Ballingall wedding is complete without Uncle Hugh and Ina, who came all the way from Scotland!! Troos and all! On one morning outing Sarah and I took them to an Indian Village in London. Beautiful morning!

Rehearsal Dinner

Friday night my mum hosted the rehearsal dinner for Dave and Amy's wedding party. Lots of fun and great food!!

Hockey Night in London

It was very excited to be able to see an NHL game in little old London, Ontario. My mum graciously paid of all of us to go see the Philadelphia Flyers play the Toronto Maple Leafs at the John Labatt Center in London a couple of nights before the wedding. It was Hugh and Ina's first and probably last game and an exciting night for Alex to see his first NHL game (he has been to many other hockey games but not of this calibre). Sarah hosted dinner before hand and then we all walked down to the John. What a game it was too! Ended in shoot out and the Leafs won but very nail biting near the end, which I did not see because Alex wanted to explore!

Cousins at the Park

Gibbons Park! This is a favourite haunt for all of us. After the race we took the kids down to the park and they got to feed the ducks and play in their favourite tree. Can you see them in there??

Springbank Park Half Marathon

My mum ran the 5k and I ran the Half on September 12th. A new PR for me of 1:47!! Not even planning on it but my competitive spirit took over!! I actually probably should not have pushed so hard with my marathon coming up but I felt good and ran hard and got the results to show! Good times!

The Little Man

Alex is still very much into imaginative play and loves dressing up, his cape or his hiccup costume are among the favorites. He loves to play out back and pretend that we are knights or vikings or whatever the character of the day is. He has become very creative with his play, but still always wants me to play with him, which I don't mind (but I do get kind of tired of being the sick dragon or Jessie from Toy Story riding on the back of his horse).

He loves playing with his neighbor friend Cooper. They really play very well together despite the 2 year age difference. He has been upset this week because Cooper started school and is rarely available to play anymore. He loves legos or anything that he can build with or fix. Recently Jay showed him how to use his big power drill and to Alex this is the coolest thing EVER and is always asking to drill holes in anything.

We have been trying to put his fourth birthday party together and I asked him who he wanted to invite and the rattled off a list of about 25 kids!! AAAHHH!

Austin Children's Museum

Seems recently we have been doing a tour of Children's Museums all over the country. Austin's one is very fun and unique to Austin of course. We spent a great day downtown first with lunch at Magnolia (that is Alex hanging with the restaurant kitty) and then on to the museum. Now that it is official that we are leaving we are trying to soak up as much Austin as we can.

Arr Matey!

Alex the pirate!! Arrrrr!! This is Alex having a blast at his buddy's pirate party yesterday in Leander at Robin Bledsoe Park. They got to participate in a treasure hunt, each treasure they found contained one piece of their costume. Way too much fun!!

The Kilt

My not so little brother is getting married on September 25th. He is going full Scottish kilt, seal skin sporran, socks etc. so Liam and Alex are also going to wear their kilts. Alex's kilt just arrived yesterday in the mail after great anticipation more from me than anyone. I didn't spend a lot on them but definitely don't want it wasted if he chooses not to wear it. Ever since ordering them online I have been busy thinking of the bribe of the century to make sure he wears it for the wedding. All the chocolate he can eat, brand new dragon toy, new playmobil stuff, new cape...the list was endless. However when it came and we opened it he immediately wanted to put it on and show it off to his friend Sigi across the street. Well she gave him the right compliments and so I think he is sold on his new man skirt. Hopefully it lasts till September 25th. I do have my secret weapons in place though just in case we have some dissension.:) Doesn't get cuter than that!

Go Faster Mum, Go Faster!

Since Jay has been put onto the back end of the week at Samsung I now find myself with Alex every Saturday without Daddy. Saturday is my 5 K day, so Alex is now my race partner and he absolutely loves it. He asks me all the time when our next race is and "should we win this time". Well if it were only that easy to win!!. He usually sits in the jogger yelling at me to "Go faster Mum, go faster". That's all the motivation I need to go as fast as I can which pushing a 30 pounder is usually not very fast. We managed to take second place twice and several PR's-he's my lucky charm for sure. I was very happy today to break 30 doing Vern's No Frills at Berry Springs Park, which was not easy on a loop trail run with over 200 people. I have recently starting getting the t-shirt they give you for entering to Alex (if they have extra small) and he is so proud of his little t-shirts. Our Saturday morning races together have been so meaningful and memorable for me in so many ways-I hope that when he is older he will look back fondly on these times as well.

These are some pictures of the donkeys at the park today. He loves to feed them and is becoming more brave about actually letting the donkeys eat from his hand. When we first started coming out to this park he wouldn't even go near them. The first picture is kind of neat because the camera captures the carrot being thrown through the air to the donkey by Alex.

Starting School

I am so excited for Alex to start at Community Montessori School this year. Before I had Alex it was always my dream that he would attend a Montessori school (as Jay and I both did) and that I would also be able to work at the same school. This would be any mother's dream, to be with or near your child all day. Well maybe it wouldn't be all mother's dream but it is mine. We are very lucky to live 4 minutes away from what I consider to be one of the best and true to the Montessori philosophy schools that I have ever seen. When I taught we would attend the annual Montessori conference and some years it included a tour of an exemplary school in that city and never in all my years have seen a school as beautiful and well laid out as CMS. Even the school that I worked at for 10 years doesn't really compare. Hopefully it does meet my expectations which I sometimes set way too high.

This past week we had meet the teacher night and pot luck dinner to meet the other children and parents. All of us were on the playground chatting and doing introductions and Alex comes up to me and points to a lady and asks if that is Ms. Jinny (the teacher). I was very shocked because it was the teacher whom he had never met or seen before. I am still puzzled by this intution of his. (I am sure that he heard someone say her name but there is a small part of me that thinks there was some sort of higher force going on). Anyway he fell in love with the playground and the teacher and even met some friends. Jay got a brief look into Montessori from another source other than me after all of these years of hearing stuff from me and now we are SO excited to have Alex attend the school. And the bonus is I am going to sub there after my marathon is over so I will be able sneak peaks into his room and at the same time quench my thirst to get back to teaching.