Almost Done...

A Rocky Start to the Weekend

We quite literally had a rocky start to our weekend!  The kids and I gathered all of these rocks from the woods and hauled them to the back yard to create a new flower bed in a neglected corner of the yard.  My kids are the best little helpers!!

We tried to stick with flowers that either grow wild in the area or are (hopefully) tough enough to last through the scorching hot summer.  I figure if they can grow wild on the side of the road they can survive in my garden!  

I hope we can attract some hummingbirds as well!

That's all for tonight, more updates and pictures coming soon!

Sprinkler Fun!

We've been getting a lot of bad weather in Oklahoma this spring so we took advantage of a pretty afternoon and let the kids run through the sprinklers!

We have been very lucky the tornadoes have avoided our small town.  My thoughts and prayers are with those who haven't been so lucky over the last few weeks.  I hope the stormy season is over so we can really begin summer!

We are Warriors!

We did it!  My friend Jenn and I completed the Warrior Dash Oklahoma!  What an exciting race.  We completed about 12 obstacles on a 3 mile course.  We climbed over walls, crawled through tunnels and mud, climbed chain ladders, made our way (ever so gracefully haha) across cargo nets, swam in a lake, and jumped over fire (twice!).  By the end of the race we were both exhausted, covered in mud up to our ears, and extremely proud of our accomplishments!  The course was through the middle of nowhere in Inola, OK so I don't have any pictures of the course.  Spectators were limited to the finish area by the mud pit and fire jumping.

Team BenjaMan raised over $5000 for St. Jude's Children's Hospital!  And we wore BenjaMan superhero shirts and capes on the run.  I have to admit, running with a soaking wet cap is not the easiest!  

Here I am celebrating with a turkey leg after rinsing off.

And of course we earned our horns!

Looking forward to next year!

Happy Mother's Day!

This weekend we took a little break from home renovation.  We spent some time in Kansas City for a softball tournament and did a little outlet mall shopping.  It was nice to get away from the to-do list for a while.  On Sunday, Ryan built a new bench for our back patio as my Mother's Day present.

I found a bench on Pinterest that I like the style of and he ran with it.

Source: greenwala.com via Katie on Pinterest

We have a small area on the side of the patio next to the house where the concrete slab is sloped.  Eventually, we'd like to cover the lower slab with a paver patio to even out the area and to expand the patio size.  But, for the time being, we decided a bench would fill the space nicely.  (You'll notice we still have a little work to do on the post and side of the roof.  But I'm done painting the siding!)

After a trip to Lowes and a few hours of working Ryan finished my new bench.  It is mostly made out of cedar 2 x 4's so I won't have to treat it right away.  I'm looking forward to it naturally weathering.  We attached it to the wall slightly higher than a normal bench.  Mainly because there is a power outlet hidden on the wall right below it and moving it lower would block the outlet.  I'm hoping the extra height will discourage the dogs from jumping up on it.  

The new bench got me excited about spending more time on the patio and motivated me to begin working on my next project, refinishing my adirondack chairs.  Ryan built these for me for Mother's Day four years ago. I lovingly refer to my all patio furniture as my Mother's Day Collection now.  :)  These poor chairs have been left exposed to the elements for four years and are in desperate need of refinishing.

I haven't gotten very far, but here is a sneak peak at what I'm up to.

Warrior Dash Oklahoma 2013!

One of my 2013 resolutions was to get out and run more.  In March I ran my first 10K and it really lit a fire in me!  Shortly afterwards I learned about a crazy event called the Warrior Dash.  The Warrior Dash is a 5K obstacle course run that includes climbing over walls, crawling through mud, and jumping through fire, just to name a few things.  So what did I do?  I found a friend crazy enough to join me and we signed up. 

Jenn, YOU ROCK.  Thanks for being crazy with me.

Why on earth would we subject ourselves to this kind of torture?  For a turkey leg and warrior horns, of course!  

OK, that's not the complete truth.  The thing is, Warrior Dash is a St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital partner.  Warrior Dash events have raised more than $5 million for St. Jude's.  Did you know that no family ever gets a bill for treatments received at St. Judes?  Now that is awesome.  I'm all too aware of the costs of cancer treatment.  My hope is that my little donation and fundraising effort will make a difference in the lives of a family struggling to survive.  

What blows my mind the most is that two kiddos my girls were once in daycare classes with have battled or are battling cancer.  As young children.  Cancer scares the hell out of me.  Jenn and I have joined Team Benjamin in honor of one of these little kiddos.

If you would like to support me in my Warrior Dash adventure please visit my fundraising page:

Katie VanZant's Page

I promise I'll post all the muddy pictures after the event!  Even if you'd rather not support me financially I'd really appreciate your encouragement on May 18th.  Did you see those obstacles??  Yikes.

Sun Room Progress 5/5/2013

Ryan made a lot of progress today! I spent most of the day taking care of normal life chores (laundry, errands, spraying for ants, more laundry). V. and I bought purple pansies to plant next to the porch. The girls did a great job planting them. Brings back memories of helping (or watching?) my mom plant flowers in the big barrel planters at Country Hill Swim Club before opening day eons ago.

Ryan finished hanging drywall in the sun room and began muddying it. It's starting to look like a regular bedroom! To end the day we built a fire in the fire pit using some scrap wood and made s'mores. We used the biggest marshmallows I've ever seen and the kids were all sticky messes. Perfect way to end the weekend. :)