Springtime, Part 2

Playing catch-up with all the photos today!  This = my view of the capitol from my parking space at the Will Rogers Building, going into work for day 2 of a protest hearing at the OCC!

Spent a full Saturday test driving cars and discussing future finances with Triston Michael!

Jaceman has discovered that he's a big fan of grilled chicken (progress!), and he cooked it for all of us at our last family dinner!

Exceptional movie on the friendship between Reverend George Whitefield and Ben Franklin.

I love this period of history!

"I have lived, sir, a long time.  And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?  We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings that "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it."  I firmly believe this.  And I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel... I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business..."

~Ben Franklin to the Constitutional Convention

(They voted for it, and that continues to this day, where we need it more than ever!)

Left that movie in pouring rain... made it home 10 minutes before tornado sirens... stayed in my shelter for about 20 minutes... very grateful to say all was well!

Random fun meme! =)

I "co-hosted" the belated brunch baby shower for Paige Evelyn with Debbie Robinson yesterday!  She and her daughter, Taylor, did most of the work.  I made the FB event and brought the Chick-fil-A. lol  It was at Debbie's house, which was lovely, and we had lots of great food from Panera, CFA, Ludgers, Cookie Mama, and the donut shop!

Fun day for Lindsey Claire! lol  Presh fluffy Mia and presh baby Paige!

❤

Proud grandmas!

Kantrell meeting Paige!

Parker and Zealand (her potential future husband, per her recent announcement). lol

Tate befriending Mia (so tiny and adorable!!)

Party shots...

Mia was a hit! lol

❤

Chet and Debbie with their babies! lol

❤ ❤ ❤

Disney Dreams

On 1-11-2026, Chettles ran his "3rd and final" Full Marathon
through the four parks of Disney World!!

This = my fav race day pic of him as they came back into Epcot for the final stretch!

And now, a recap of day one of my trip. =)

Chet called while I was at the airport to let me know that Tate was sick.  (My nonstop Southwest flight was timely and smooth, as was the Uber drive and Pop Century Hotel check-in.)  Chet texted at 9:30pm saying Tate had thrown up again and praying "IN JESUS NAME" that no one else would be getting sick this trip - (spoiler alert - the prayer worked!)  I was in bed by 10PM and back up by 2:45AM to meet Chet and Karli at the bus stop at 3:30AM.  Absurd!! lol

As soon as I got there, though, the race-day energy kicked in.  I just really love the whole vibe of seeing all the runners and their supporters and the fun dancing bus drivers, all ready to make the most of Marathon day!!

Pop Century bus stop selfie with the wonderful Wilsons - this was the first time I'd seen them since I got to Florida!

We rode the bus over to Epcot, where this race started and finished!  They had bleachers and a huge screen set up where Karli and I watched four waves in each of the 7 corrals go through the start line (Chet was somewhere in wave 3 of Corral D).

Mid-race character pic with Louis!

Judy Hopps and Nick Wilder!

We walked to a certain spot to see him again at Mile 3, then Karli and I took the monorail to Magic Kingdom, where we grabbed a table for a bit before they all came through Main Street around Mile 9!
It was cool being there to watch the sunrise over Cinerella's Castle - probably the first and only time I can say that!

❤

The crowd was predictably chaotic and insane, so we got separated trying to push our way to the front of the roped-off section... Chet stopped for a selfie with Karli Marie!

...then one with me!

He took his own castle selfie! =)

Whilst we grabbed some coffee (for Karli) and pastries from Joffrey's - yum!
Side note: Chettles ran the full 26.2+ miles on an empty stomach, which still feels insane to me!

Chet's pace group selfie!  He found a 15/30 group (where you walk 15 seconds, run 30 seconds over and over) going for a 6:30 finish time, and he stayed with them the great majority of the race!  (This race has a strict 7-hour time limit and balloon ladies at the back of it that will escort people off the course if they do not finish in time.  I think I could've made it, though.  The world will never know. lol)

We saw Chet one more time at Mile 12, where Karli passed him his sunglasses and pickle juice and LMNT electrolytes... then we bussed back over to Pop Century, where she went back to Donetta's whilst I hung out at the hotel for a bit... then me and Bill and Melissa met her and the kids by the Rubiks Cube (Bill and Melissa's hotel building), and Karli drove us all to Hollywood Studios!

Waiting with our signs at Mile 24 outside of Hollywood Studios!  ❤
(My sign is a nod to Chet's fireworks commentary during our 2015 trip.)

Another random sign that made me laugh!

Parker was *thrilled* to be there supporting her dad! lol

Sadly, the traffic from HS to Epcot was INSANE, as was the Finish Line crowd!  We called Chet to tell him to slow down a bit, so this = him following that suggestion and trying to wait on us. lol

Between the double stroller and arguing kids and the crowded and narrow Finish Line path, I was the only one who actually got to see him finish... I couldn't get much closer than this, but this pic still makes me happy!

And so does this one!  I paid $200 to get all the official photographer pictures from this trip! =)

Stepping through "The End" of the race... not gonna lie, they kinda missed the "Happily Ever After" opportunity here - with the storybook theme, I was expecting that at the end and "Once Upon a Time" at the beginning!

But they lie - it wasn't the end - the participants had to walk approximately two more miles directly after the Finish Line to get to "the reunion area" to see their friends and family!  Gracious, Disney, do better!!

Yay, Chettles - best person I know - so glad I got to be there to support him!!  I'm mildly annoyed that they gave them their medals in a plastic bag rather than putting them around their necks #anticlimactic... but whatevs, he got some great medal pics the next day!

Wilson/Weatherford crew... Chet with the gold Mickey ears and race medal!

And one with meeee! lol

He changed into this fun t-shirt post-race.  Cricut for the win! lol

(And he really was done - at least according to him on that day, he will never do another Disney Marathon.)

Yay Marathon Athletes, and yay State Farm sponsorship! lol

Close-up of the medal!! ❤
26.2 in 2026

We took a mid-day break to rest and recharge, then did dinner at Town Tavern in Celebration with Teresa and Donetta!

Cute pics of Parker and Donetta that night. =)

(There was a brief discussion about visiting the Boardwalk for the Cake Bake Shop, but the kids vetoed that so we all went to bed early instead, which made sense after a 2:45 wakeup call.)

So that concludes day one. =)

❤ ❤ ❤

A Time to Keep and a Time to Cast Away

Happy New Year's Eve!! ❤

This = tonight's Wednesday walk with Kristin and a pic by the train at The Station - if you blur your eyes, it kinda looks like NYE fireworks going off behind us! lol

Happy trees and my favorite verse as today's verse of the day!

Jace and TJ riding the bikes they got for Christmas (and Kyndal joining them for a bit)!  They rode from Rachael's house to Mom's house, which sounds slightly worrisome to me, but I'm sure they had fun!

Okay, the following prompts are courtesy of ChatGPT, who I often wanna call Chattles, but that would just get confusing. lol

❤️ Best of 2025

• Best Decision I Made This Year:  Setting boundaries and sticking with a difficult no

• Best Yes I Said (Even Though It Scared Me):  Joining the PhD Program

• Best Trip / Day / Moment:  My solo trip to NYC / Relay Marathon + Friendsgiving #14 / Reaching onederland for the first time since 2009

• Best Book That Changed How I Think:  Collective Illusions

• Best Podcast:  Mel Robbins & David Kessler or Craig Groeschel (Leadership Podcast) & Vanessa Van Edwards 

• Best Laugh:  The ER trip with Rach

• Best New Restaurant / Comfort Food:  Paul's Place / Laurannae cupcakes

• Most Life-Giving Relationship:  Friendship with Chet Lee

• Most Unexpected Encourager:  Dr. Burkhart

• Most Meaningful Goodbye:  My long phone call with Kristen Harriss the week before she died

• Most Honest Prayer:  None of this makes sense - where are You?

• Most “God Was Quiet but Present” Season:  August

• Biggest Shift in What I’m Asking God For:  Asking for renewed security in Him

• Most Healing Scripture or Truth:  "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind." -1 Timothy 1:7

• What I’m Leaving in 2025:  Striving to prove my value within the church through motherhood and/or marriage

• What I’m Carrying Forward:  God-given value

• What I’m Still Becoming:  Securely attached

• One Word I’m Choosing for Next Year:  Renewal

• One Thing I’m No Longer Rushing:  Family

• One Thing I’m Saying Yes to Next:  Peace

• The Decision That Taught Me the Most:  Adopting the Embryos

• Most Unexpected Plot Twist:  Turning down two good counseling job offers and taking another court reporting job for now

• Best Moment That Wasn’t on My 2025 Bingo Card:  Dr. Burkhart saying I would be a great professor and being willing to personally mentor me

• Hardest Thing I Did—and Survived:  Quietly walking away from my decade+ adoption plan and trying to make sense of that whole journey

• Most Proud-of-Myself Moment:  The cold and rainy February day when I rallied and ran 14 miles on my own (my longest run ever up to that point) - of all my runs this year, that one required the most inner grit

• Most “Why Did I Say Yes?” Moment:  Hitting the mental wall during Mile 22 of the Full Marathon - grateful I pushed through it

• Most Spiritually Stretching Season:  August & September

• Biggest Lesson I Didn’t See Coming:  That I am good with kids, and I can trust that (Epiphany on Epiphany post), and because of that, I don't have to strive or prove my value within the church through motherhood

• Most Peace I’ve Felt All Year:  Immediately after making the decision to close the door on embryo adoption - that peace lasted about 24 hours before I got very caught up in the whirlwind of spiritual warfare and worry over the opinions of others, but it was a God-given sense of peace that eventually returned as I prayed and got more confirmation there.

• Most Unhinged Thought:  "Okay, I'm totally calling Rachael on my drive back (from Dallas IVF) to find out if she's still willing to carry the baby for me!" *That was while waiting on Dr. Ku's ultrasound after my heart sank hearing about the fibroids, BUT then he said all was well to move forward so I was overjoyed and never made that phone call... he left a voicemail the very next day saying we would need to run further tests, then no one in OKC could do the test he ordered and it took over a month to get back into their office, then I needed another surgery to move forward, and by then, my mindset had shifted very gradually - I am seeing God's hand and timing in all of that now in ways I really couldn't before.  Most people will never get the depth of it, and that's okay.  At least I'm familiar with ambiguous grief.  For the level of inner determination I felt, I had to adopt the embryos.  I had to spend the money and try the IUIs and at-home insemination and do the home studies and profile books and sign the legal contracts and have the surgeries and be repeatedly disappointed and hear the hard medical news (2x about me and 2x about nonviable embryo matches) and deeply question God's will and my abilities then repetitively seek wise counsel and reassuring words from Chet, Mom, Emily, Kristin, etc. and go through that ENTIRE exhausting emotional path in order to ever reach the end of my rope and prayerfully choose to let. this. go.  "There is a time to keep and a time to cast away," and both seasons mattered deeply for me here. ❤  I kind of feel like I am saying a final goodbye to that hope here as this year comes to a close, and it's bringing up some quiet grief and sadness for me (an odd contrast as I listen to my neighbors holding a comically-loud NYE party).  Knowing how to move forward with a sense of purpose is still tricky and difficult, and I'm choosing not to tie a neat bow over that wound today.

• Phrase That Describes This Year:  Learning Curve

Praying God blesses us with hope and peace as we seek Him in 2026!

❤ ❤ ❤