Ryan Benjamin

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!

Eleven.  It doesn't seem possible that eleven years ago today, we were hearing "It's a BOY!" for the first time and then laughing with great joy over the amazing wonder of YOU.  I have always said that you are so much like your Dad, but now, I am loving how much you are BEN.  You are sweet and loving and so sensitive.  I love it when you sit beside me and ask me if I'm ok.  I love it that you still want to hold your Dad's hand in church... I love that you play with your sister, and make up Imaginary Games that you drag her along to play.  I love it that our cat, Cassidy, thinks you are AMAZING.  He hates everyone else, but lights up around you.  I love it that you say, "Why does this cat follow me around?!?!?!" because it is just so YOU.  I love how excited you are to spend time with "Just the Four of Us", helping us plan family adventures, and being SO enthusiastic about them!  I love how much you ADORE your extended family... I've never seen a kid LOVE each one of their cousins so much (even if you don't want to TOUCH them!!)  I love the sweet concern you have for them, and how you pick a different one to pray for each morning.  I love the excitement you have over Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents... and the sweet tears you shed EVERY TIME we pull out of the driveway in Michigan to head for home, and the tears that fall when you tell me you miss Grammy and Papoo when they are away.  Your heart is so tender, and your Dad and I are so happy to have peeled back the layers of it to reveal the True Ben inside.  I love how smart you are, seeing things so many of us miss!  I love that you are a Human GPS (hey, thanks for helping me get home last week when I got off the wrong exit!!) and know every highway, exit number, and restaurant from here to Michigan.  It really does come in handy!  I love to hear you talk about Levels of Mario with your Dad... the both of you going on and on, and Carly and I rolling our eyes!  I love that!  You are just the coolest kid, and seriously?  We are so proud to be your parents!

As you continue to grow, we pray above all else, that your relationship with God will become deeper and deeper... we pray you will grasp a little tighter this year to the amazing truth that He loves you and died FOR YOU.  We pray you will gain an even deeper understanding that EVERYTHING you accomplish is from Him... You have come so far in your little life, Ben!  You have overcome great obstacles and are the most amazing little man because of it... and we love you!!!

"... all that we have accomplished, You have done for us"

Isaiah 26:12

We love you COMPLETELY,

Love, Mom and Dad

**photo from February 2002... age 3, and the year of the squeaky bug.  Yes, it was Carly's toy... but he comandeered it.

Determination

Ben participated in a "Last Chance" Swim Meet in Clearwater last weekend... as in, Last Chance to qualify for Junior Olympics.  You will remember that Ben has a JO cut time for his 50Free race, but it is qualifying as a 10 year old, and you must still be 10 when you compete at the Junior Olympics... and he "Ages Up" tomorrow!  And JO is NEXT WEEKEND.  Rats.  He would have to qualify as an 11 year old to participate next weekend, which would mean cutting a full 3 seconds off his race.  While he did not do that at this meet, we saw something really spectacular in him this time.  Determination.

I've watched him swim for a long time.  We've told both Ben and Carly that all we ask for is that they do their best.  JO cuts aren't important if you didn't do your absolute best.  We try to impress on them that no matter what they are doing, God calls us to do it to the best of our ability, to glorify Him.  Even swimming!  It's a delicate balance (for US!!) when our Human Parenting wants to see them WIN!  and we know we need to encourage their hearts in the direction of Who they are doing all things for. 

So, Ben's in the middle of his 50free race.  And his Best time is .03 seconds (got that??? POINT ZERO THREE) over the achievment of an "A Time" and my Mama's heart is pounding and Ryan couldn't watch (really, he had to keep putting his head down and stare at the floor) and no kidding, all of a sudden I noticed the most amazing thing:  He was determined.  He was locked in.  He was doing his BEST.  I was hundreds of feet away, in a balcony looking down over Lane One, and I could recognize it in his arm movements, his kick, everything.  I swear my heart was going to explode.  It was awesome.  That has to be how God feels about us when we are doing what He wants.  He's our Heavenly Father, and loves us, His little children.  I can envision Him looking down over the "balcony" with His heart-about-to-burst-with-excitement to watch us "get it".  The question is, what have I done to make Him feel that way?  Hmmmm. 

Back to Ben, and away from hard questions I'm too chicken to answer...  THIS is what DETERMINATION looks like.  Love it.

And his time...

He's in Lane One... so technically "last place" and he was 1/2 a second over his Best time... but I think he learned a way-more-valuable lesson.  He learned what REALLY doing his best FEELS like.  He was proud of himself for that.  We were... well, you know.  I'm still smiling with pleasure over that race.  And I'm thankful for yet-another-visual of my relationship with God.  And a goal... to make Him smile with pleasure, just like this:)

Now, before you feel all "How did Ben get LAST PLACE!?!?!?" (I know, right???!!) He was the youngest in that heat and was racing against much older boys:)  Spoken like Ben's Mama, I know.

Next race... and another milestone... his 50 Fly.  If you clicked on the link above, then you were reminded about his DQ's for the butterfly.  Check out his amazing form now:

Obviously, pretty proud of that... Even arms, just exciting to watch.  He was 1/2 second over his Best time, but form was so much better, so we are really on the right track.  He has worked so hard!

Chatting it up with the Coach, and reviewing his Fly...

Last race of the night... 100 Free. 

Carly watching her Big Brother rocking it... He's in the lane she's standing in front of...

Lane Six... 3rd place.  And a full SIX seconds off his Best time... That is amazing!  Oh, and he went from a B time, to a BB time:)  Very Exciting!  Again, swimming with older boys.

Very fun night for all of us!!!

Getting ready to take off during warm ups...

Beautiful dive!

Fun picture of my Dad!  We were pretty happy to have my parents and Tracy and Torrey along for the fun...

Mom hanging out, waiting for Ben's race to start... The Clearwater pool is a pretty nice venue.  Indoors, which was GREAT since it was a rainy night!

Little Miss was playing "Scrabble" with another little boy... nice words she was making.

Torrey Elisabeth!

Birthday Buddies Birthday Bash

Had a little Birthday Bash for my Birthday Buddies last weekend.... Tracy and Torrey flew over from Houston so Tracy could celebrate her Big day with her Birthday Buddy Ben.  So many "B's"!!!  We had a great weekend (more on that to come...) but here's how the party went...  Cake from PUBLIX.  Tracy got to pick the cake (since Ben picked pizza for dinner)... so he told her to make sure it was "marble" cake, and that it had blue, green, and yellow frosting.  So, YOU ARE WELCOME, Tracy, for getting to pick the cake!

The kids eating on the back porch... Also for dinner (because Ben picked Little Caesar's Pizza, and I could NOT make my parents eat it), I talked Tracy into making lasagna.  It was so good.  Sorry you had to make your own dinner, Tracy.  That's what you get for making it so good!  (actually, she volunteered, so I'm not SUCH a terrible hostess).

Presents... Ben got this very cool pinball machine from Grammy and Papoo.  Ok, he LOVES this thing.  Our Totally-Techno Boy loves the "old fashioned game".  Go figure.   He also got money towards the iPod Touch he is saving for.

Tracy and the gift I made her...

Ben got a Bakugan set from his grandparents, also...

Tracy threw her wrapping paper at Ben and we thought this picture was GREAT!  (*photographer credit goes to Uncle Steve for the majority of the pictures!  THANKS STEVE!!!)

Making a wish!

Cookies, courtesy of Rochel... they were so delicious!

And you can see who will pose for ANY picture, right???  Nice:)  Thanks to Rochel, Edgar, and Eli for coming over... My parents, who are now off in Israel for 3 months (count them, one-two-three), and Steve... and well, you know WE were there, and Torrey! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY BUDDIES!!!!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

We've made it to the end of a FUN, busy weekend... I have about 4 posts to share, but will START with this one: 

Daddy-Daughter Dance at the Temple Terrace Recreation Center... When Ryan went to buy the tickets, the girl asked him if he was bringing anyone.  For Real.  "Just you, or anyone else?"  Ha!  The big event was this afternoon, and Ryan told me they "Cut a Rug".  That could mean they literally had scissors out.  You never know with Ryan... but what I DO know is, he and Little Miss had a GREAT time!

and moving from the sidebar, and into the REAL blog...

AND I QUOTE:

Upon starting Family Devotions one morning, Carly states:
"Previously on devotions..."


Ben: (while listening to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on the radio) "Is Rudolph real?"
Carly: "Um, yeah... he went down in history. Duh!"

HOME!!

5 words:
Sammy and Gino are HOME!

Can't wait to meet them...

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart"

Psalm 37:4

Pretty happy it was the desire of HIS heart, too!

FRA Bowl

Hi.  It's Carly... taking over Mom's Blog.

hi  i m not carly im the head leader of Florida Reading Associates [FRA]our team got first in in the FRA Bowl on the 20th of january. my team thought we were'nt going to win, it came down to a tie breaker.  But we won!  I felt bad for the other team because they said the wrong answer and started crying.  But I felt good for us that we won. 

So Far, So Good...

It's best to begin at the beginning... unless we are talking Long Race... then the END is the best part!

The Finish Line...

Ryan told me a week before the marathon to make a "Mile 26" playlist on my ipod.  What a clever man, it was a GREAT idea!  It really got me through Mile 26, which I ran the whole way!  Well, I did stop ONCE to tie my shoe (ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!??! Don't think I didn't squat down REALLY FAST to tie it, and as I'm tying it I thought "WHAT was a I thinking?!?!  I REALLY hope I can get back up again!" HA!)  When I started this last mile, I SO BADLY needed to get to the finish, I ran the whole way.  This after NOT having run for the past 5 miles.  At all.  When I saw the  "Mile 26" mile marker, I know I laughed right out loud, I was so very happy... I quickly sent a text to Ryan "26!!!!" so he would know I was coming.  Hi-Five'd a volunteer who said, "You are doing great!" and this is what was playing in my ears... "So Far, So Good" by Truth:

It's getting harder to remember feeling lost and lonely
cause it seems we've been together for so long
but I've been living in the moment
so I never stopped to measure
all the miles that pass the places where we've gone
but when I try to count the ways your love has carried me
it doesn't take me very long to see...

that we have come so far,
you have been so good,
when I trace the road that we have travelled
I've got to tell you, Lord
I look at where we are, and see where I could have been
I need to say again: You've been so good
who would have guessed that we would come so far?

Then, this part was playing when I turned the corner and the Finish Line was a straight shot!  Of course I was singing and yelling "I DID IT" and generally being a complete dork:)  I'm ok with that.

There may be others who have wondered
why you kept on believing
in the person that You knew I could become
but even though I wasn't worthy
You're the One who's love was faithful
to complete the work in me that You'd begun
I don't know all the mountains that are left for us to climb
but I know when I reach the end I'll find....

we have come so far, you have been so good...

Totally ran around people to High Five Donald...

Right after crossing the Finish, I saw Ryan, and yelled to him "I DID IT!!!  I DID IT!!!"... I love this picture of us yelling at each other:)  It was such a fun moment, and I was really excited to finally (7 hours, 1 minute, and 29 seconds after starting) get to STOP!  And, I was really excited about accomplishing something so NOT ME, and realizing that the only way I could have done it, was with God.  Loved that.  Right after I got my medal, I leaned against the fence and thanked the One who is so very faithful.... 

Miles 20-25

Ugh.  These miles were really hard.  I will be honest and say that I was kind of worried about not finishing IN TIME mostly because I was getting so tired and going slower and slower.  I prayed a lot.  My ankle hurt.  I saw the "Pick up Bus" for people who couldn't finish and it scared me:)  Around mile 23 you go into Disney's Hollywood Studios... I really did NOT want to go!  No matter how much I tried to "re-live" the fun we had with the kids there last month, I did NOT love it.  I had a lot of heart-to-heart chats with myself, and was so very thankful when I finally entered the side gate into Epcot and the volunteer said, "Welcome Back to Epcot!" and there was Mile Marker 25!  That's when I started running again...

Almost to Mile 18

The Animal Kingdom... where my family was waiting for me. 

I was so glad to know they were going to be there!  I felt really good at this point, and I wasn't too tired, but I really needed to see them!  I'm so thankful they were able to be there... here's a photo credit shout out to my brother, Steve, who took the above picture and many of these, also.  Also, my dad and Laurie took LOTS of pictures.  (Is that good, Steve?) 

I really appreciated my sister Laurie coming down from NH with her girls to be with me... I called her back in March to ask her to come because we needed someone to take care of Ben and Carly for us.  I wasn't sure if my Nomad Parents would be in the country or not, and well, let's be honest, I needed my big sister with me.  Turns out, my parents WERE able to come, and my brother, too, which really made it nice for us to have such a support system.  And Rodney.  Ryan's best friend.  I say he was there for Ryan (since I had a posse of my own!), but really, he helped us BOTH with encouraging text messages during the race, plus he took Ben and Carly into the Animal Kingdom for a little fun while waiting!  THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you! 

Mile 10 The Magic Kingdom

Ok, so fun!  By the time I was running into the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom, it occurred to me that this was going by REALLY fast!  Not just saying that because it's over!  There was so much entertainment along the way and just the excitement of everyone around me, it was truly going by quickly.  I heard someone running past me tell their friend, "Soak it all in, just enjoy every moment of this!" and that really stuck with me.  Also very fun, when you run into a new park, the workers at the gates hi-five you and say, "Welcome to The Magic Kingdom" or where ever you are... HA!  That was fun for me!

Pictures I took with my cell phone... I stopped to take pictures!  It was just such a cool experience, I couldn't help myself.  The top left is running down the street into Tomorrowland.  Running through my mind was all the times I came here when I was little, and particularly going with my BFF Sue.  Next is Space Mountain, then a shot of running down Main Street towards the castle.  The park was not yet opened when I ran through, so it was pretty fun to be there when it was so deserted (except for the workers cheering!)  Bottom row, running through the castle!  Reason enough to run this marathon.  Especially if you are a Disney nut, like I believe I must be.  The middle shows the men dressed in Cinderella livery on the balcony, heralding our arrival with trumpets.  Lastly, I turned around for one more shot... 

The Start...

Ryan and I got up at 3:15am, got ready and were on the Marathon Bus at our resort (Pop Century) by 3:45am.  There was a video playing on the bus with last minute marathon information.  It was FREEZING outside.  No really, like 25 degrees.  We had an old blanket and left over mylar heat blankets from his previous races to keep us warm.  We were actually pretty warm while we waited to get going.  For 2 hours, we stood around, talking and laughing.  It really kept me calm being with Ryan, I know I would have been too nervous if he weren't with me!  We ate chocolate covered coffee beans and cliff bars to get our energy going for the race.  Finally, we made our way to our starting corral and enjoyed the festivities with everyone else who was running.  Fireworks heralded the start of the race, and we were off.  First park, Epcot.  While I was running through, I thought to myself, "When I'm back here, it will be to finish!"...

Back to the FINISH

After crossing the finish line, getting my medal, and thanking God, I stood around waiting to see Ryan and the fam.  This woman came up to me and said, "Honey, your shoe is untied, I'd hate for you to fall after running!" and I said, "it's ok, I'm waiting for one of my kids to tie it for me, I might not be able to get up again!" and she offered to do it for me, which I let her since she hadn't just run (yes, I checked with her first...) so RANDOM lady, THANK YOU for tying my shoe! 

and a close up of those medals:

Ryan got the Mickey marathon medal, a Donald 1/2 marathon medal, plus this one for the Goofy Challenge...

He's pretty proud of this one!  For 39.3 miles, he should be! 

Kristin and Laurie, who stayed very cold for us!

Laurie and Amanda.  After this, Laurie took her girls, and Ben and Carly to the Magic Kingdom for a fun afternoon. 

The Night Before...

Ok, now you know why there are titles in this post... I'm jumping all around!  The night before, we ate dinner at the Olive Garden (tradition!) then the kids made posters for us...

Kristin made this one...

Ben made this one for Ryan... it was a pretty well known fact I just wanted to finish!  I appreciated the "Tick Tock" in the upper right corner:)

Whew!  Fantastic memories!