ToadLick Music Festival

This weekend, Adam got us TIP (Toadally Important People) tickets to the ToadLick Music Festival in Dothan, AL. It was awesome! We got down there Friday night in time to see Sawyer Brown, one of my favorites from back in the day. They sang a song off their new album that was great too; it is called Smokin' Hot Wife!

Later that night, Clay Walker performed! He was really good! I had so much fun singing his songs. I sent Hilary and Erin a text message with his picture. They were jealous! We (and Lindsey) used to sing his songs ALL THE TIME growing up! He sang all of my favorites, except Hypnotize the Moon.

In between the two, Jake Owen performed. I knew a couple of his songs, but we took off to the TIP Lounge for more dessert. I felt a little old enjoying Sawyer Brown and Clay Walker more than a newbie, but I just don't listen to country music like I used to.

On Saturday night, we got to see Sara Evans perform. I took several pictures of her, but between her shiny outfit and the spotlight, none of them were good pictures. Montgomery Gentry and Dierks Bentley also performed, but we didn't stay for their shows. See admission above that I just don't listen to country music like I used to.

You can't see them in this picture, but I do have on cowgirl boots!

Also, to make the weekend even better, Adam and I went to see Hunger Games before the concerts started. I hestitated to read the books all last year, but finally took the plunge over Christmas break and LOVED them! I read them on our Kindle, but enjoyed them so much, Adam gave me a set for my birthday. So sweet!

I think this movie was a much better adaptation of the book than the Twilight adaptation.

While we were having our fun, Taylor had fun with Nannie and Papa!

She LOVES to ride the golf cart!

What?

Every morning and afternoon, to and from school, there are several different animals we see--horses, cows, donkeys, goats, and even a buffalo! (You'd think we live in the country, but no.) She is always talking about wanting to see those animals, so Nannie told her she'd take her to see donkeys the next time she visited them. Nannie was true to her word and took Taylor to feed some donkeys!

She wouldn't let them eat out of her hand.

We all had a great weekend and were super exhausted when we got home. I know Nannie and Papa were exhausted too! Taylor is a handful!

Living Room Redo

Adam has been wanting a new couch for a while, so we finally broke down and bought one. Although I was okay with the old set up, I REALLY like the new stuff. We were able to sell the old couch for a good price on Craigslist and we're having a yard sale next month where the rug will hopefully be sold.

Now, obviously, I NEED new pillows and curtains, but those will have to wait...

Gymnastics

We started gymnastics back in January, and Taylor loves it! She asks everyday when I pick her up from school if we're going to 'Nastics! Here's a (mostly) typical 45 minute gymnastics class.

This is NOT typical, but for some reason she wanted to wrestle with Aubrey.

She was NOT happy when we made her stop!

Mommy got in the wheel to make her feel better. I almost couldn't get out! That is not made for big peeps!

She has gotten very strong through gymnastics!

She gets bored with the bars pretty easily (although bars was always my favorite!), so she was off to the floor again. She's probably saying, "Come here, Mommy!"

Back to the bars!

So strong!

Mommy teaching her to flip!

She likes the beam a lot and does really well. She can walk across the low ones by herself and hold one of my fingers on the tall ones. She wasn't into it this day though, so we don't have any good beam pictures.

She didn't want to swing on the rope because it hurt her legs. :)

See how strong gymnastics is making her! She can do decline push-ups with Daddy!



Laundry Detergent

I've mentioned in several blog posts about Pinterest. It really is so great! One pin I found was about making your own laundry detergent, so a couple weekends ago, Adam and I tried it. The link said to get Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and Fels Naptha Laundry Soap Bar. It said you could get all of this at your local store, but all we could find was the Borax. We ordered the other two things on Amazon. We also had to buy a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot. I think our total spent was about $20, including the bucket.

We (Adam) cut up the soap bar and put it in a pot with ~4 cups of hot water. We boiled it over medium-low heat, stirring continuously, until all the soap flakes dissolved. I think it took around 10 minutes.

Then we (again, Adam) filled the 5 gallon bucket half full of hot water and poured in the soap mixture from above. We added 1 cup of the Super Washing Soda and a 1/2 cup of Borax and stirred all that together, then we filled the bucket with water until it was full.

We covered it with foil (because we didn't buy the lids to the buckets) and let it sit overnight. Well, we actually let it sit for a week because we didn't have time to do the next step, which took, oh, 5 minutes. 

Throughout the "sitting process" it gelled up, so we stirred it again before beginning to put it into the containers we'd been saving. The containers should be filled with half water and half soap. The link where I got the recipe from said she used 8 cups of each for the best mixture. We put in 8 cups of the detergent mixture and then I just filled them with water.

This should make about 10 gallons of detergent, but we only had 4 containers at the time. We'll continue filling containers until it's gone. The next time we make it, all we have to buy is the Fels Naptha laundry bar, which was about $4.00 on Amazon, although its apparently about $1.50 if you can find it in the grocery store.



I've used it on a couple of loads so far, and it seems great! The link above shows an experiment she did with her husband's old t-shirts and mustard. It appears that Tide and this detergent performed the same on getting the mustard out (neither got it out completely).

She says to use the soap, you should shake the container first and then use 1/4 cup for a front loading machine and 5/8 cup for a top-loading machine. It works out that I use two capfuls from the blue bottle, so that's easy enough!

One more Pinterest project down and several hundreds more to go!

SaveFirst

During the month of February, I worked several nights with Impact Alabama and their SaveFirst initiative. I spent a Saturday (and Thursday night) in January training on all the IRS rules for tax returns. I even did the intermediate training so I could do a few more things than most volunteers, like itemize, quality check returns, etc. I participated as part of this year's placement with the Junior League of Birmingham. We (the JLB) have worked with them for many years, helping low income families to get the appropriate amount of tax refunds. It's really unbelievable how many of them have been taken advantage of by well-known tax prep places trying to fraudulently increase their refund and thereby increasing their fees. I didn't have any crazy stories this year, but I heard plenty during my training.

This is a great program and so many families benefit from having trained volunteers help them prepare their taxes for free and be sure they get all the credits they deserve, while not allowing them to file under the wrong filing status or claim dependents they don't have.

Here's some soundbites from the SaveFirst website:

     This was the sixth year of the SaveFirst intiative.
    
     Last year over 450 trained students and volunteers "prepared tax returns for more than 4,300 families at sixteen sites statewide."

     The team helped families "secure $8.2 million in tax refunds, saving them $1.3 million in commercial tax preparation fees."

While in the process of this busy month, I always question why I do these things. Looking back though, it was great to get to help people that really need it!

Supercross

A couple of weekends ago, Adam got us and two of our friends tickets to the Supercross event in Atlanta. I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually pretty fun! Not to mention at date night with the hubs is always a plus!

Adam also scored us pit passes and VIP tickets to the Muscle Milk area. We walked around the "pit" and got to see all the sponsored drivers with their big set-ups and then all the drivers just trying to make it up the ladder. The sponsored drivers had big buses with catered meals and were signing autographs. The "unsponsored" drivers had one little 10X10 tent where they were working on their bikes. We saw only one female driver. She does motorcross (which I learned means racing outside, versus supercross, which is  racing inside).



Amber and one of the Muscle Milk drivers, with her Rock Star hat on.

 After checking out the pit (and sitting in the Muscle Milk area for a LONG time because the guys wanted to get there early), we headed to the Georiga Dome for the race.

I would not want to be responsible for getting all this dirt out of the Georiga Dome!

Yay for date night!

The jumps were awesome to see! There were a few crashes, but thankfully none were too bad. Afterwards, I told Adam I wouldn't be opposed to going again, I just didn't want to get there at 3:00 for a 7:30 race!

While we were out of town, Taylor stayed with Mama Donna and Papa Rex, and had lots of visits from Aunt HeHe.

Eating Chinese for lunch. Aunt HeHe got her a new "bunny" shirt that she LOVES!

Another weekend in the books! This year is moving way too fast!

Mercedes Marathon Weekend

Don't go thinking I ran an entire marathon just because of the post title! :) No way! I did that once, in 2007, and vowed to never do it again! I did run two half marathons after that, but I'm done with those distances. (Well, never say never.) I recommend running a marathon or half at least once though. Race day is a lot of fun! It's just the training that's tough. Back in December, Adam ran his 11th marathon!! He's actually a "Marathon Maniac" after running 6 marathons in 6 months!

What's nice about the Mercedes Marathon, is that you can run as a member of a 5-person relay team. So that's how I ran a "marathon" this weekend. I actually ran the shortest leg! :) I gathered up a group of 5 people from work to run in the race and raise $100 per mile, or $2,620, for the Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs. (I had just started my new job when it was time to sign up. They probably thought I was crazy, asking them to run a marathon and raise that much money!) The Bell Center partners you with a child that attends the school. This year we ran in honor of a little girl, Ellison, who was born at 28 weeks weighing only 15 ounces!! She has made great progress with the therapies she receives at the Bell Center. She's about 20 months old now. She even  started crawling a couple of months ago! Our team raised more money this year than ever before! Ellison's family helped us fundraise and they raised over $2000! In total, we raised $4,760. Thanks again if you donated to the Bell Center!

I'm involved with the marathon and The Bell Center as a member of The Service Guild of Birmingham, but since I've joined that organization, I know 3 children and their families who are benefitting from the therapies provided at the Bell Center. It is a wonderful organization!!

Ellison working with her therapists at the Bell Center.

Ellison's family and some of our team at the Bell Center Holiday Party. Ellison has one other sister too, but she was at school.

Finishing the race as a team (sans one team member).

Our official time was actually 4:52:14...takes a few minutes for everyone to get across the starting line.

Yay, we finished!

Here's the story of how the Mercedes Marathon partnered with the Bell Center.

The story behind the Mercedes Marathon and its partnership with the Service Guild and The Bell Center goes back to 1992. That was the year that Paul and Cinna Sotherland welcomed their baby boy into the family and named him Matt. But Matt’s entry into the world was not an easy one.

Born with Down syndrome, Matt also had the heart defect that often accompanies the diagnosis. He required open heart surgery, and the whole idea of their baby boy undergoing such major surgery naturally frightened his parents.

Cinna recalls being at UAB with Paul and baby Matt just before Matt was to have his surgery. The family was standing at one of the big windows at the end of the hallway that looked out over the streets of downtown. Runners, competing in the Vulcan Marathon, were racing by, and Paul – who was a recreational runner but not much of a competitive one – looked down at this tiny son and made one promise. “You pull through this, Matt, and next year, Daddy will run a marathon for you,” he pledged.

Thankfully Matt kept his end of the bargain, so Paul soon began training. Together, father and son faced many challenges: Matt’s challenges came as a part of the Down syndrome diagnosis, and Paul’s challenges came as part of his training to run 26.2 miles in honor of his son. During his training, Paul looked for guidance and motivation – and even good running shoes – from Valerie McLean, the owner of the Trak Shak in Homewood. And Paul did run the Vulcan Marathon the next year. But he didn’t stop there. He has since completed 19 marathons and more half-marathons than he can even remember. But it was really Valerie McLean who took the inspiration from Paul and Matt to even greater heights.

Valerie helped organize a half-marathon to benefit The Early Intervention Program (now The Bell Center), the place where Cinna and Paul brought Matt to receive critical therapies. Over the next five year, the “Freeze Your Half Off” Half-Marathon grew into a first-class event. At that point, Valerie knew it was time to take the event to the next level, and in 2002 she transformed the “Freeze Your Half Off” into the Mercedes Marathon and Half-Marathon. Proceeds from the event are given annually to just two charities that provide services to children, one of which is The Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs.

That same year, The Service Guild organized its first Partner in Training (PIT) group as a means of fundraising for The Bell Center. The program provided experienced coaching for runner and walker who agreed to raise funds for the Center. In its first year, PIT included 45 runners and walkers who raised more than $80,000 for The Bell Center. In 2003 and in 2004, more than 120 participants raised more than $200,000for the Center, allowing the program to add more staff and to serve more children in need of critical early intervention therapies. By 2008, the PIT program had grown to 256 participants, and the money raised by the marathon for The Bell Center was more than $307,000. And in 2009, there were 262 PIT runners, and more than $258,000 was raised for The Bell Center.

And as the Mercedes Marathon has grown, so has Matt. Now, he attends Homewood High School. He is still non-verbal, but he uses sign language and his communication board (also known as a “Go-Talk” board) to communicate. A couple of years back, his PE teacher has even begun working with Matt on walking long distances with a student partner, with the idea he could eventually walk in the race with his family.

It began with one man’s promise to his newborn son many years ago” it has evolved into a phenomenal running event that provides such great promise for the children of The Bell Center every year. And we will be cheering for this year’s runners as we work diligently to keep Paul’s promise alive.