Well, as a parent of young children, of course we have some big decisions. This one in particular is about school. A friend emailed me some information about our local elementary school in the subdivision. It was surprising to me and Mark. The number of subsidized lunches is supposedly 83%. In addition, the spending per pupil is $16k a year!

Indeed, Alexandria Public Schools even made headlines in Forbes magazine back in 2007, but not in a good way. One mom shares her thoughts on her blog.

Mark & I desperately want Hunter (and Colten) to be raised with Christian values, which is our duty, but choosing a school for your child also must be factored into the equation, as you parents know. We have much in which to be in prayer.

Private Christian school? Costs too much.
Move to Fairfax County? Don't want to leave my neighborhood.
Stay here? Very concerned.

I would love to hear feedback from you, including you former teachers.

Fortunately, we have another year and a half, probably, but you know we have to start thinking about it now.

Apparently, I was not the only one thrilled about the snow...

We received our first snow fall of the year (or of 2 years!) this week and it was, though modest, fabulous! I have been whining and wishing for snow for about a month or more, so I was thrilled!

I received a call from one of my precious neighbor friends- "Wanna bring the boys over to play in the snow?" That's all I needed to hear and we were out the door (Yeah, it was about an hour and a half later, but that's as fast as I could go.)

I had to return some kids' snow bibs to a friend, so I dropped off Hunter for him to play, and returned to find this:

Pam pulling a couple of the girls.

Notice the snowman in the background on the left? Abby must have said, "What nose?" That's a girl who likes her vegetables!

Hunter was being pulled by a couple of the girls (Gabriele and Maggie, I think). He was the only boy there and think the comment was made, "Every man's dream." Ha!

I don't know if you notice but in almost every picture, Hunter is sucking on his coat. I can't get him to keep it out of his mouth. The end result is that he looks like he has an extra set of lips.

December was a dizzyingly busy and stressful. I guess it is for most people, even though I always hear advice on how to make it less stressful. Is it because it's also my birthday? No! I know- we spent about 5 weeks shopping for a new car! It was crazy stressful and put us behind in all of our Christmas preparations! None the less, I am quite thankful.

Here is a summary:

Hunter's Cubbies class acted out the Christmas story. Here he is as a Shephard. What a cutie! (Thank you, Renee, for taking the pics.)

Mark and Hunter decorated a gingerbread train (a tradition). It was set out for looks. However, Hunter and I went to my friend, Kathryne's, for a pajama gingerbread house decorating party. That house we did eat- YUM!

We celebrated Jesus' birthday with our MOPS group- the kids did crafts, ate lunch, had birthday cake and a story about Jesus' birth, finished off with singing. The kids love it!

My dear friends, Candice and Renee, surprised my socks off with a little Birthday pampering! They asked me to get a manicure/pedicure with them, but when I showed up, there were balloons; there was champaigne, chocolate, flowers and- best of all -more friends! We spent the next couple of hours together getting our nails done, chatting and laughing. It was SOOO nice and it was a total surprise!

Mark took me out that night for a fun dinner at Cork. It was a wine bar, which was a very neat little place with an amazing wine list!

Colten started pulling up. Not only that, but the first time he did it, he went on climbing up the stairs! He's now cruising.

This is actually a picture of him NOT smiling like he always is!

AND... I am the proud owner of a bus and I actually love it! We got it for one amazing deal.

I am not giving our Christmas celebration its due but when you're two months behind in blogging, this is the best I can do. Enjoy. :)

Well, Mark is out of town, I have nothing pressing on me, so I have a couple of minutes to BLOG! I can't believe it's taken me so long to get back into it, but here goes...

Thanksgiving:

Well, Mark's Mom and Dad pleasantly surprised us by accepting our invitation to give thanks at OUR house! It was great- we hadn't been together since March. They kept the boys for us one night for us to have a movie date. We love movies, so we greatly appreciated that. (Thanks, Mom & Dad.) Hunter loved having them up, too. I'm currently trying to talk them into getting DSL (cable is apprently not available where they live) so they can SKYPE with the boys.

Mark's Mom & Dad:

Isak brought some killer wine and Mark made a fabulous bird!

We had 2 other families with us for T'giving. This made for a total of 5 children 3 & under. Needless to say, it wasn't actually quiet at our house and the only people who sat during dinner were Mom & Dad. Lucky them.

The Loud Table (being supervised):

Candice & Isak:

Gregory & Christy

I forgot to mention that Mark's Mom blessed us to pieces by making much of the side dishes and she such a good down-home food cook. YUM!!!

Before Thanksgiving rolls around, I better post our adventures in Halloweening and all of the hard work Mark put in to Hunter's costume because it WAS a beautiful job.

Mark spent a good 6 to 8 hours on it because he is so maticulous and precise. Maybe he should have been an architect or something. However, he did a phenominal job on Hunter's costume.

Hunter wore his costume to his preschool's costume parade. He and a fire engine costume were the only two whose were home-made. I definitely didn't think I would be a home-made costume gal.

Mark used tape to paint the stripes on the wings, coat hangers to keep the wings out at exactly 90 degrees. He perfectly measured and cut the propellers out and covered them in tin foil and attached them to the front. The holes were practically custom fit, even though Hunter was asleep when he cut them. I did have a small hand in the creation: Hunter and I spray painted it!

(Hunter with one of his Minnie Mouse buddies.)

I can't tell you all the ooohs and aahhhs Hunter received on Halloween night. It was such a hit! A couple people even asked to take his picture. Interestingly, everyone assumed I made the costume but I quickly corrected them. Tons of people told him he had the cutest costume all night. So, I say with a thankful heart, thank you, Mark!

Now what to do with that BIG costume. I think Mark will kick me out of the house if I throw it out. I mentioned doing that to a couple of friends and they were practically offended. But it's HUGE! Hmmm...

Oh, and I can't forget our other flying angel on Halloween. He was miserable for most of the trick-or-treating because I think he was hungry. He is usually such a good baby.

No, this isn't a post-election blog about 'bama or 'cain but a request for H.E.L.P. in picking me a new car! When we shopped for my current car, it was the first one at which I looked. I knew what I wanted.

We have outgrown my car, which I love, but it can hardly hold us for shopping jaunts across town, much less taking us anywhere worth packing it up. It's a lease, so I am finally able to upgrade to a much bigger car. Plus, I did just have a baby this year, which made it extremely clear that we no longer fit in it! (Besides, Hunter's knees practically touch the seat in front of him and Colten's carseat presses up to the seat so that the passenger's knees are in the dashboard. But I digress....)

I am more hard-headed than most of my friends who have slowly made the conversion to the "Odd Sea" (the Honda mini-van). Even though I know their daily lives in and out of cars will be much easier than mine, I am getting an SUV.

This is where you come in. I am really at a loss as to which behemoth I will have to squeeze into parking spaces. None are really appealing to me (though I am actually not complaining), but I have come up with some options:
Toyota Sequoia
Infiniti QX or the Nissan Armada
Buick Enclave or the Saturn Outlook

Please VOTE! You can even vote purely on looks and not feel bad. If you have experience with the one you choose, tell me. Am I missing your favorite? Let me know. I just really don't care for the Fords or the GMCs.

One more thing, my lease is over 12/1, so I have to make a decision QUICKLY! Thank you in advance for your help.

With a nasty chest cold, severe shin splints and not having run for 2 weeks prior due to tendinitis, Mark FINISHED his second Marine Corps Marathon! Thank you for your prayers. Mark was a little down about his performance and and was in a lot of pain. His goal was to beat his time last year. He hung with his 3:40 pace group (that's 3 hours and 40 minutes finish time) for the first 10 miles.

When the cell phone updates I was receiving every 5k started showing him slow down, I started to panic. Later, I discovered he had to stop every mile after mile 16 to stretch his legs. They were cramping up from not being able to run for the past 2 weeks (while letting his leg heal). He wore a leg brace which helped with the shin pain. Then his ankle started hurting. Poor guy.

I had 2 angels helping me Sunday. Renee kept Colten for me for over 9 hours! and my friend, Kathryne, went with me and helped me with Hunter while her husband stayed home with their 2 under-the-weather kiddos. I could not have done it without them, so I'm throwing a shout out to my girls!

I was thankful that Hunter didn't decide to run into the midst of the runners and get trampled as if he were running with the bulls in Spain. I made him a sign for him to hold for his Daddy but he lost interest after holding it for, oh, about 2 minutes! Mark said he only saw him once.

We saw Mark three times: by the Tidal Basin, the National Monument and finish area in Rosslyn. The finish line is fenced off, so virtually no one can see their loved ones cross. However, when we arrived in Rosslyn, I had a crazy idea- to run the last part with Mark. K told me to go for it and she would hang out with Hunter, so off I went!

While I have no pictures to show you, let me help you envision what it looked like when I caught up to Mark at mile 25. He was shocked to see me, much less that I started running with him... in my jeans, hair done, dangle earrings in and make-up done. Boy was I a sight to see. I got so many looks as we approached the finish. Even another racer was joking with me that he was going to wear the same shirt that day and how do I keep my hair looking so good while I run. Very funny!

As Mark and I took the left turn to head to the finish line, a lady Marine jumped out, "Ma'am! You can't come through here!" I readily obliged her and exited the race, no longer able to see my groom. We were to meet by the W's in the Family Link Up area which was quite a distance away.

The three of us waited (me, K and H)... and waited... and waited. Finally! I got a call from Mark who was at the free Verizon call center for the runners to call their loved ones to link up. He couldn't make it to the Link Up where we were because he was in too much pain.

When we finally found each other, there was sweet relief from an very exciting, yet draining day.

Mark, I couldn't be more proud of you, honey.

PS: So, what does a marathoner eat after his race? Make your guess in the Comment section.