"I know a secret!"

"You can't keep a secret."

"I can keep secrets really good! I have my forgetting powers!"

"Can I make a rock slide down the sand pile?"

"Dat not a seekwet!"

"I'm gonna be a big brother."

Markers, Haircuts and a Lucky Shirt

Ok so I had a few surprises this morning. The first was that while I was upstairs Lydia got hold of an orange permanent marker and gave herself freckles like Mommy and Jonas. She also colored her hands just for fun. Any ideas how to get this off? Next we have Adrianna who last night pulled a Pedro. In case you haven't seen "Napoleon Dynomite" I'll explain. She was very hot and her ponytail had gotten knocked sideways so some of her hair had come out of the elastic holding it back. Instead of just asking me to fix it she got a pair of scissors and cut off the locks that were sticking to her face and neck. She then took out her ponytail completely before I could notice and fell asleep. When I went to brush her hair this morning I noticed. She had even cut of pieces of her hair that were still in the ponytail so I really had to cut it and do some creative layering this morning to try and even it all out. I fixed it for now but luckily Cami is coming up next week and can make it look a little smoother I hope. Some pieces will just have to grow out some more. She wasn't thrilled with the haircut but we had a long talk on the consequences of cutting our own hair. After all that Jonas came in wearing a very familiar looking camoflouged Transformers shirt. I asked him if hadn't he worn that yesterday, and the day before? (Luckily he had not been playing outside much). He answered in the affirmative and said this was the fourth time he had worn it without it getting washed because it was his lucky shirt. We had a little dicussion about how unlucky it would be if nobody would play with him because he was stinky or if he got sick because he didn't wash his clothes. He'll probably wear it again tomorrow but it is getting washed today.

My New Room

I know you are all shocked and amazed that I am finally updating. I found the cords to my camera at last so I am able to have pictures to download. This post is going to have pictures of my new room. Now most of you know I am not a great house keeper. But the fact that half of our bedroom has been used as a storage room pretty much since we moved in is bad even for me. My incredibly amazing sister-in-law Suzanna came down last week with her four kids and in four days we completely transformed my room. We dejunked, decluttered, trashed, and cleaned then refinished furniture, painted and decorated. That would have been a feat in and of itself but the fact that we did this with 10 children ranging in age from 8 years to 2 months "helping" was incredible. Now I will warn you of the graphic nature of the first few pictures. This is picture above is the storage area that was supposed to be my bedchamber. These are the before and they were taken after we had started the sorting process so even though it looks awful believe it or not there was some order to the chaos. In the picture above you can see the opening to the "bedchamber" on the right. No matter how hideous this looks remember the end results speak for themselves. Above is the main room where the bed used to be. The head of the bed was against the wall on the right. The bed used to be where the cabinet and drawing table now are temporarily. This part of the room is not yet finished it will become a library/sitting room (with a fireplace between the windows eventually). Jason will be starting on the book shelves this weekend hopefully. Now I know you've been waiting for this so here it is. The finished bedchamber. This obviously is the straight on view. The side tables are the same green and gold ones that were in grandma Peggy's house we just refinished them along with the head board we haven't used in years. It used to have a green and cream crackled finished and where you see the light panels those are actually bamboo place mats cut to fit into the panel recesses. And Daddy, thank you for the Moroccan pillow shams. Don't they look just perfect?!Now to the left side notice the awesomely huge mirror.( It weighs a ton, well you know what I mean, that's why it's not hanging.) However, I actually like it leaning like that, go figure. Now to the right. Notice the same shelves that were in the other room minus the clutter (and several pictures that I actually really liked, but just didn't go with the look). Heather and Suzanna picked out the pictures above the bed which are hard to see in these pictures (they are purple flowers on a chocolate brown back ground) and the plants (hope you notice the second one). They also picked out a little round lamp on the left hand night table that in the picture just looks like a ball of light. It's really pretty though. Anyway I love my new retreat and can't wait to have a "library" in my room! (Those of you who know me know that is like a fantasy for me.)
For anyone who is wondering we used mostly things I already had and were able to do this with very little money spent. To be honest I didn't know I had such good looking stuff.

It's Only Been A Month

Okay.... I know Easter was almost a month ago, but I couldn't stand it. Here is how we celebrated Easter in the Guffey home.

When we got home from church we found out the the Easter Bunny hid eggs in the back yard by the construction zone! (Okay, the retaining wall we're working on). Everyone had so much fun, and we found all of the eggs!

The End!

Coming Soon

I will get to my team the "Dirty Blondes" in the next day or so, just be patient with me please.

The Mud Run - Dirty Blondes

Well, here it is as promised and only a week late. I'm not sure how this will turn out because when I downloaded the pictures I had them oriented to the left and not center so the text may not match the pictures exactly.

The "Dirty Blondes" consisted of me Janet, Andrea, and Mollie (my sister-in-law). This whole thing was Mollie's big idea and we even had shirts with our team logo done on them. We found out later that the color of the mud splatter printed on the shirts was almost the exact color of the real mud.

Anyway, to start we had to get down on the ground, when they shouted "up" push up into plank position then hold it till they yelled "go". Two teams started at a time as you can see and the team behind us were the "Dirt Daubers". As we were waiting we got to talking about different races and they told us all about the Fort Jackson mud run which you will hear all about later since Jason and Mollie are already planning teams and training for (it's in September.)

Ok so finally we're off. I was the slowest runner on the team, but the other girls were very understanding since I volunteered to boost them over the walls. Of course I got some help too since the teams behind us didn't want to wait while I struggled to heave myself over, they gave me a boost. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of that. Those would have been rich.





We had fans cheering us all along the way! They didn't think it looked too hard. Of course these are our strong boys Preston, Jesse (Chad & Suzanna's son), and Jonas. They said they want to be on Team Huge next year.


So when we came up to the "mud pit" this is what we saw...

A sand bagged area filled with red dirt and being flooded with water. Very cold water.

Andrea was the first one through, then Janet and I together, then Mollie. Notice how Janet managed to keep her shirt clean. Mollie hugged her later just so she'd be dirty.

The creek bank was slippery, but we negotiated it with no mishaps. And finally made it to the finish line where we promptly removed our shoes as they weighed about five pounds apiece at that point.



We waited and our fans soon joined us as we cheered for Team Huge and celebrated the fact that we finished.


As we awaited results the kids wanted to run their own race so Jason organized a few sprints for them as well. It's never too early to start training I guess.

The Mud Run - Team Huge

For several years Jason and I have enjoyed participating in 5k races. Jason has also done 10k and even a sprint triathlon, so when his sister asked if we would be interested in doing an 8k mud run we were excited at the prospect. We knew 3 1/2 months in advance this would be a fun challenge. 5 miles with 30 obstacles and calisthenics stations along the way with one obstacle being a mud pit followed by a creek. So we've been "training" off and on for a while always knowing that although we didn't have quite enough time here or there to get in a work out, the race was still far enough away that we had a while to keep training. Then came the day that we realized the race was less than a week away. Oh the panic.

I was registered on a team with my sister-in-law Mollie and two of her friends but Jason's team had disintegrated in the months between finding out about the race and actually participating in it. So with only a few days to go he managed to convince his brother-in-law Chad that he could still do it and two guys from church, Tui and Jason, that it would be fun. Since no one on their team weighs under 220 pounds their name was "Team Huge".



Now although none of these guys are small they are actually pretty fit. They run, bike, play basketball, lift weights and other various activities. So with each knowing their own abilities they were all pretty confident they could make it through. Unfortunately there were a few setbacks. Jason Garrett had been really sick and was finally starting to feel better but after 2 1/2 miles was having such a hard time with his lungs that he had to drop out.



However the other three team members continued on valiantly without him. The second time around was when everyone had to go through the mud pit and creek. The fans (aka Jason's sisters and all the kids) were yelling that the only way to get through was to dive in like a slip and slide, so that's what they did.

Tui seemed to come through without any issues. However Jason ended up with mud in his contacts and Chad, well you see the pictures. Jason sunk about a foot into the mud crossing the creek, but Chad, oh how I wish someone had managed to get it on video. After much slipping and sliding he managed to haul himself up the creek bank and then only had to worry about the 20 extra pounds of mud he was carrying. Ok, so that's an exaggeration, but not by much.

After the mud pit they still had a few more calisthenics stations, but finally they made it victoriously to the finish line. They were a sight to behold and were received by cheers from all their fans.

After the race there was only one water hose for all the contestants to rinse with. After looking at the length of the waiting line Chad and Jason decided to take advantage of a nearby pond. (Tui had already left in order to get to his daughter's volleyball tournament, we did receive word he managed to get in a shower before he went.) So anyway, they headed for the pond where they dove right in. Jason came up laughing and yelling because a fish had swum up his shorts.

They came out of the pond a lot wetter but not much cleaner. However being dirty never stopped them from helping out and these two dads voluntarily emptied the overflowing trash cans which contained a surprising number of muddy shoes.

They did well and we are all proud of the big boys of "Team Huge"!