Things I am liking lately...

1. Stuff Christians Like.

Have you heard of this guy before? I don't know much, but I know he writes this blog and every now and then I would check it out. My MIL however had his book, which I believe just came out this last year. It's hilarious. If you haven't heard or read any of it, you should either go check out the blog now or go to Amazon and order the book. It will be worth your read!



2. Baking Cookies.

Seriously. I make at least two batches a week. What is up with that? The even sadder thing is, at my house, we go through at least two batches a week. Don't put a scale next to me, I don't wanna now. And I even took a little break from running since the marathon, so I don't have that in my favor. But, if you are in the mood for a sweet treat, you can stop on by. I currently have a good batch of double chocolate chip sitting in the cookie jar. Help yourself.

3. My son and daughter.

The little guy just ran in here, sans clothes, "I'm a naked bottom!" and ran away. Yep, stripped of all his jammies he is running around letting it all hang out. My little girl however is still sleeping, which I love. And she has started crawling, which she has been working at for the past month, so I am super proud of her!

4. The Crow's Nest

Dave and I went out on a date last Saturday and we try to go to new places or restaurants each time we get out, because let's be honest, it doesn't happen that much. This time we ended up at the Crow's Nest, a little restaurant on the second floor of a building in Kalamazoo. It seemed to be a hip little place with a current artist's artwork on the wall and hip hop/rap music playing in the background with a current menu to go with it including organic food and a complete vegetarian section. And they had good food, I got pita and in-house hummus dip while Dave got some onion rings. The other cool thing is it is on the second floor, and the first floor is a coffee shop, The Fourth Coast Coffee Shop, which is open 24 hours. Therefore, you can order any coffee drink and they bring it to you from downstairs. I like it. Dave got a cappuccino con leche. Very delicious! If you live in Kalamazoo, I
recommend it. It's on Westnedge, and resonably priced. Go check it out! The Crow's Nest



5. Garage Sales.

Namely mine, which I am having this Saturday! So Come! And this cool website, where you can look for garage sales in your area or advertise your own: Gsalr.com

6. The weather

It is seeming very fall like lately here in Michigan. I am lovin' this 60 degree weather today. Amen. And I know that they say the weather always changes in Michigan and tomorrow it will probably be 95 degrees with 95% humidity, but I am enjoying it now. And the long sleeves. And sweatshirts. And chili. And Gull Meadow Farm Iced Pumpkin Donuts. And long jeans. Yes sir I do!

What do you like lately?

My mind's blank.

I am having this urge to write a little post, but unfortunately, my mind's blank. I can't think of any thing good or coherent to write about. So I figure I'd just start writing. Something is bound to come out of my babbling, right?

Oh. Well, Thanks to my awesome SIL Corie, I am now the somewhat permanent-until-she-wants-it-back owner of a treadmill. That, my friends, is something I have been wanting for a long time. With Dave mostly gone from 7 to about 630-ish each day (and this past week it's been until 10), finding a time to run has proved a bit difficult. My options are to a. run severely early in the morning which I really don't need to explain why I don't wanna do it or b. run when he gets home, after dinner, after bath and after bedtime which puts us at about 9 pm. Neither option seems good to me. Now however, I can run at nap! Since both kids take a nap at 2, this works out perfectly. So thank you to Corie, I am eternally grateful.

Following the next rabbit trail...Dave is in full swing football mode. "Football Season" really is a joke of a term, it fools you into thinking that it only takes time away during the actual season, August-November. Not so, my friends, not so. Coming from this football coaches wife herself, I'd say it starts way back in June and goes until December. I think even in springtime they have optional weight lifting too. So though we've been in football mode for a long time here at the Hocker house, things have actually really begun to pick up. The first game was last week. Dave is the JV head coach, but he also has to go to the Varsity games too. So that's two very late nights a week for him (and me). It takes a lot out of him, but is one of his biggest passions in life, so it is awesome to see him come alive every week when they turn on the lights. I am so very proud of him. That being said, it's very busy for us, and our lives sorta revolve around football. So keep us in your prayers, that we keep in all in balance.

Clara's on to solid foods and lately has been favoring vegetables. She'll tolerate applesauce and bananas, but give the girl carrots, sweet potatoes or broccoli and she'll chow down. I don't get it. It's fun to move into this stage of babyhood. She's also doing everything but crawling, and is really so close to putting it all together. She'll get on all fours, go to sitting, lunge forwards, pick up her hands, you name it. But crawling is still something to be mastered. And she still has no teeth. My sweet gummy little girl.

James continues to amaze me, make me laugh, and be my little buddy. I don't mean to sound lame or anything, but I do really like hanging out with him. Lately, he's just been a pretty captivating boy. His imagination is really coming alive right now and it is funny/amusing/interesting/weird to see where it will take him. I have been having lots of those sighing momma moments where your just look back in awe at these little people who have now taken over your lives. It's sometimes just downright amazing. It's also weird for me to think that just 2 1/2 years ago I didn't know him, and now I can't imagine my life without him.

I went to California too. Which was good. Good to see family, friends, and eat In-n-Out. My brother turned 30, graduated Law School, and took the Bar. I am oh so proud of him. He's such a grownup now. It was so good to see my other SIL, Karly. I am really starting to appreciate what a awesome woman and wife she is and really enjoy and cherish the few times I get to see her. It's times like this that I wished I lived closer to those people, but I wish they didn't live in California, because I don't want to live there. Does that make sense? Anyways, I saw my good close friends from college, Traci and Melissa. Those are special too. They are the type of girls who I can go out to dinner with and have some serious talk, but later go out for frozen yogurt and take silly goofy pictures like we were back in college. They really are one in a million. I miss you girls!

(Do you notice the guy totally photo bombing our picture in the background? Nice.)
I also saw Ashley, a good friend from college who despite moving 2,000 miles away from her, has kept in good contact with me. And that's always really important to me, so I really appreciate our time over coffee to catch up. There were a lotta other stuff I dealt with family-wise, but let's just say that's personal. :)

Whew. Well, I guess my mind really wasn't blank, was it?

Somerset Stampede

I did it! I ran (without crawling) the Somerset Stampede half marathon. It ended up being quite the good race. It was on an awesome course that was half paved, half dirt and ended on horse trails. (Well, that part wasn't fun. The horse trail was very sandy, and having run 12 miles, it's hard finishing that last mile in sand). It was perfect weather, and I would dare say almost cold when I started. I ended up running it in 2 hours and 11 minutes, which I think is okay. I finished third in my age category, but don't get too excited, there were a total of four women in it. I also had the best spectators too- Dave was such a good husband and I got to see him and the kids at about 5 different spots along the run. He 'raced' around the course in the Jeep to different mile points to offer me encouragement and the occasional bite of PowerBar. He's a good one. James helped me finish the race which made it all worthwhile! I am however just looking forward to running just to run, not running in preparation for a race.

Also, my kiddos were great for the entire day, walking up early and all. Thanks kids!


Getting on the road at 5 am


Arriving at the race, 6:30 am!


At the starting line...


Getting ready to go!


Mile 6 perhaps?


All done!



Here's the video of the finish. What a good racer my little buddy is!

Now I am just left with sore knees and bloody blisters on my toes. Nice, right?

Just keep runnin'

Tomorrow is my half marathon, eek!

I'm pretty excited. My one goal: finish. Even if I am crawling on the ground, I'll finish this sucker! I'll let ya'll know how it goes...for now, I have to go to bed. I have to wake up insanely early. That is the worst part of this whole ordeal- I don't mind the running 13 miles part, I hate the waking up at 4:45 part. Maybe 5. We'll see!

Packing up Again.

This Hocker Family has been very busy this summer.

So far,

-Dave's gone on a four day golfing trip somewhere up north. I never really grasped onto the detail where it actually was.

-We went out to Estes Park, CO for two weeks. It was such a beautiful place and such a wonderful vacation. I want to go back. Nay, I want to live there. Someone find my hubby a job there!

-And today we leave for the UP (Upper Peninsula for all my non-Michigander readers) for Dave's trail marathon. The marathon is actually on a island called Grand Island and he actually just runs around the island. Yep, get up and run around an island, that's what he's gonna do. Anyways, we are going through Mackinaw on our way...bring on the fudge! I've never been, so I am super excited.

And then in the later portion of this month I am going out to California for my brother's 30th (eek! old man!) birthday and to celebrate his hopefully passing the bar. I say hopefully because this week he is taking said test, and I don't know if he's past it yet. As I recall, it's a four day test. Gross. They make you work for it if you want to be a lawyer, I guess. But I know he'll pass. At least for my sister in law's sake I hope he does! She's been quite the little trooper and law school widow these past three years and I am sure probably glad they are at the end of the road. (The first day of the bar test was even on her birthday! ) Shout out to Karly!

So that's been our summer. For the few weeks that we've been home we've done a lot of grillin', going to the library, swimmin', and if I am honest, staying in side. It's been so frickin' hot!

Also, I am highly obsessed watching the Scrubs. How did I not watch this show earlier? Too bad Dave won't watch it with me. That means I have to sneak it in at nap times or when he's at football. But I love me some JD!