winter wonderland (really this time!)

well, we actually got some snow this time. it started last friday night and snowed well into the night, enough to give us a decent accumulation. it was enough for us to play in saturday morning. its a good thing we got up in time to get out in it before the funeral, because by the time we got back home that afternoon, a lot of it had melted.

one of the children wanted to have a snowball fight

the other one wanted to make snow angels

(the snow wasn't deep enough for it to really

turn out like it should)

jolynn did get a little snowman made

rebekah with her snowmen

(daddy made the little one and mama made the big one)

tallahassee marathon

the tallahassee marathon was last sunday (feb 7). finished in 4:01:46-better than my first, but i would have really liked to have broken 4 hours. oh, well. probably my last one of those. it took a real toll on my legs. i could barely walk monday and tuesday after. my left knee and my right ankle both were just shot. maybe i need a longer training period to get used to the higher mileage. but i don't think jolynn is too keen on me doing this to myself again. it was fun, though. i was a little upset to learn the friday before the race that headphones and such weren't allowed. i had looked on the website and didn't see anything saying you couldn't use them, so i thought surely it was ok, but i sent an e-mail asking just to be sure. they said it was in the waiver that i signed (nobody ever reads those things). i had never run more than 6 miles without music, so i was afraid i might go insane or something, but it wasn't that bad at all. the finish line was on the fsu track. you came in on the south side of the track and ran 3/4 lap clockwise to the finish. when i got to the track, i saw jolynn and rebekah standing on the infield. i don't know why, but i went over to rebekah and picked her up and carried her to the finish. not the smartest thing in the world-you've just run 26 miles, and now you add a 30lb weight. it was cool, though, because they take your picure as you cross the finish, so its the two of us.
today was the first day i've run since then, only 2 miles-a far cry from 26.2. it felt good, though. but i think jolynn is probably right about not doing another marathon. i might shoot for a half-marathon somewhere down the road (maybe with my sister). for now i'll just stick to 5k's.

god bless you, michael

michael passed away last tuesday morning. he had been getting so much better. he was awake and talking and they had taken him off the oxygen. mama talked to him sunday night. she said that he was remembering things from before he went into the hospital, but i don't think he knew how long he'd been in there. he was complaining about his feeding schedule. he thought they were feeding him all 3 meals within an hour, but i imagine he was falling asleep and just not realizing it. he was eager to start his physical therapy so he could get on home. but when mama called to check on him the next afternoon, they told her to get over there as soon as she could. when we got there, they told us that he had coded that afternoon. mama and i stayed up there, and they called about 2:30 in the morning to tell us that he had coded again, and while they were calling, he coded again. he was stable when we got there, but they told us that it would keep on happening, and eventually the medicine they were giving him would stop working. they called about 5:30 to tell us he was gone. i don't know what its like when someone codes, but i imagine that its better that mama wasn't there when it happened.

of all things, we had snow friday (more about that in another post), and that kept a lot of people from coming to the visitation, but luckily his sisters were able to make it in (one in arizona, one i pennsylvania, one in wisconsin). it cleared up a little for the funeral saturday, but a lot of people were still stuck in their driveways.

anyway, please keep praying for mama. she's going to have to be stronger than she's used to being, and this is just going to be a difficult time for her. but i think she can do it. she's already surprised me a lot.

take care and god bless
the aubry's

groundhog day

i thought this was a little odd, but rebekah's class at school had a groundhog day party. kinda hard to find theme stuff for that one. however, jolynn went online (gotta love the internet) and found some gh day songs that they could sing. she also found a recipe for groundhog cupcakes. no, not made of groundhog; they're decorated to look like a groundhog. they came out really neat.