simple moments, precious memories

My little Noah is growing and learning so quickly. His heart is growing too and the emotion that boy can display never seizes to amaze me. On Friday afternoon, Chad returned home from his annual golf trip. No doubt our boy missed his daddy, but he was showing a bit of "tude" if you know what I mean. We had finished up a fun afternoon swimming at Annie and Pops condo and were changing clothes preparing for dinner. Noah asked for another yogurt (you know that sugary gogurt stuff) and Chad and I both said "No". At that point, Noah threw down the yogurt and stomped away. Chad immediately told him to "have a sit" and that is when Noah really turned on the tears. What normally occurs is after Noah gets all the emotion out, Chad or I will reason with him. This did take place and all was forgiven. A few moments later Noah was sitting in Chad's lap getting tickled by Daddy. When they stopped a moment to get their breath, Noah cupped Chad's face with both hands, looked right in his eyes and said, "Dad, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I threw my yogurt." I was so happy I had witnessed that moment. It brought tears to my eyes. To have a little boy who already respects his parents to that level and shows remorse for his actions is a blessing. Hopefully it is an indication that Chad and I are on the right parenting track and that Noah will be an exceptional teenager!! : )

Golfed and beered out

This never happens to me  so I have say it when it happens.  I played with Mika at Fayetteville Country Club this weekend in their Member-Guest.  It was a lot of fun, a lot of sun, and yes...a lot of beer.  Heroic portions even.  Leading up to the tourney over the past 2 weeks I played 2 practice rounds and hit balls every single day.  A couple of days I found myself practicing twice.

Today was the culmination with our final round (which was much better than our first round) wrapping up at 5 PM.  I met the fam out to eat (Jared, Shauntel, Weldon, and Anne are all in town) and made my way home.  My skin is weathered and tired.  My legs are shot.  My head hurts and I really think my hamstrings are about to seize up at any moment.

A little bit ago, my phone buzzes.  Chuck has a tee time tomorrow afternoon and wants to know if I'm in.  I laughed for 5 minutes before texting him back, "Thanks but no thanks."

Campbell's Baptism

The photo from FUMC.

I'm trying to catch up on big events in our life from the past few weeks.  On April 25, Campbell was baptized.  I know it was a lot to cram into a weekend with the Race for the Cure and Noah's birthday party, but never let it be said the Sullivan's backdown from a challenge :)

This is the photo from our church-First United Methodist Church of Springdale.  I know grandparents took some photos of the day and I'll try to update this post with some of those photos as well.

Noah's golf swing

I had to post Noah's golf swing this year.  It is so much more mature and consistent than last year.  As always I don't give him any instructions just hand him the club and tell him which way to hit it.

To tell you the truth- I just love the way he says, "Tell me when to Go Dad."

 

Frozen sushi and too much time

A few weeks ago I saw a Schwann's truck in my neighborhood and it got me thinking. Then I came across a Scwann's catalog and it got me thinking.

So I found myself with some free time one night and checked my 'Someday/Maybe' file and found the catalog. You'll have to Google 'GTD' for more info on the 'Someday/Maybe' file.

I went onto their website, created an account, and gave it a shot with about 5 things. We were pretty impressed. Food quality was pretty good and prices were reasonable for what I ordered (beef is only thing that seems a bit overpriced).

So the next week I made a considerable order and spent a lot of time sifting through the choices. one dish I kept coming back to was their sushi. I love sushi. I'm blessed to live in an area that has more sushi restaurants than steak houses. I'm not kidding. We have good sushi too.

I tried to resist but the curiousity got to me. I added a 'Sushi Tray' to my order. It came frozen so I left it overnight in the fridge to thaw. Yesterday for dinner I was prepped and ready.

I'm not going to completely kill it because it was exactly what I knew it had to be. It tasted as fresh as...well frozen sushi and for the price I'll keep doing the Blue Fin takeout special. live and learn.

New look and new address

Well I went too long without updating my WordPress files and malware has struck. No doWell I went too long without updating my WordPress files and malware has struck. No doubt some of you have seen the warning from Google. A rogue php file was placed somewhere on the site and would attempt to put an unauthorized cookie on your computer. I updated to the a newer secure installation but the file was there…somewhere.  It was like looking for a needle in a proverbial haystack.

To fix this I....

Short version:
I moved the site to www.thesullivanblog.com full time.

Long version:
I gave up because........I needed to backup the posts, delete everything, reinstall everything, restore the posts, and then ask Google to rescan the directory.
But…….I was already redirecting www.thesullivanblog.com to the original site at www.macadactyl.com/lilbit.
So…..instead I backed up the posts and moved them to www.thesullivanblog.com.
That was most people’s bookmark anyway so this shouldn’t affect most of you, your browser just won’t redirect you.

I’ll send this in an email as well in case you have the old site bookmarked. When time permits I’ll delete the old site completely and have Google rescan.

I like the new look though so I think this was worth it.

Love you guys,
Chad

2010 Race for the Cure

I know its been almost 2 weeks but I think I'm just getting over race day. The weather didn't cooperate fully but it was an amazing day nonetheless. We had almost 15500 people register but the rain and lightning put estimates of about 7000 people there that day. I was standing on the starting line stage after the elite run went off when the PA announced the survivor parade. People started coming out of the Promenade in all directions and they just kept coming. With the deluge and the 40 minute lightning evacuation just an hour before, I was awed at the stream of people who followed the survivors to the starting line. 7000 people in a storm makes a much bigger Impact emotionally than 15000 make in perfect weather.

I can't thank the committee and the Promenade enough for the hardwork put into Friday, Saturday, and the months and months leading up to the race. Money is still being tabulated from matching gifts and pledges but we are pretty confident we will hit our $1 million goal!!!! The impact on NWA and the River Valley will be tremendous.

I had lofty goals of photographing my weekend and updating but once mid-afternoon Friday hit it was total insanity and it didn't stop until I got home at 6PM Saturday. I do have some pics and more are being emailed to me each day. I'll share them as I can.

The past 2 years were incredible. Next week (May 11) is our 'Correction of Errors' meeting and the last meeting I'll be in charge of and then the pink gavel will pass on. It was a tremendous amount of work that I shared with some of the most amazing people I'll ever know. I can't thank them, my friends, family, and my wife enough for making it happen.

Here are a couple of photos available at focus.arkansasonline.com. They are available in high resolution for purchase.
[gallery link="file"]

Lowell Elementary Race for the Cure

Lowell Elementary always kicks off our weekend with their 'Race for the Cure.' They raised over $3000 bringing in spare change, signing their parents up for the race, selling lemonade at a local bank, and through their 'Reading for the Cure' program.

The kids were awesome. I spoke to the assembly of 4th and 5th graders about making an Impact through raising money and awareness. They loved it when I told them I was going to run the race with them and there was no way they could keep up :)

They smoked from the word "Go." I caught almost all of them before the 5th lap was over but I haven't heard that much trash talk from adults :)





Race for the Cure- 23 hours away!!!!

They say a journey starts with a single step. I feel like we've run a marathon but it seems to get to the race I have a final sprint.

Thank you so much for all my friends and family that helped out this year. Mayor Womack says no one accomplishes anything in this life alone. We always are standing on someone else's shoulders. I don't know if that is original or not but I'm crediting him with it.

I'm going to do my best to blog the day. Not really for any of you but as a chronicle of the final chapter in this book. I have a busy schedule so I don't know how often I'll update, but I promise to do my best.

Breast Brigade in Top Ten but still need more!!!

Early team registration ends tomorrow guys. If you haven't signed up yet do so now and your shirts and bibs will be in our team packet. You can register after that day for the team but you'll have to go pick up your own stuff.

Last count the Breast Brigade was number 9 on the top fundraising teams. We're getting close and need more people to sign up and raise money for a cure. I'm hoping the pretty weather this week will wake people up to register so you still have time to lead the way!

Newspaper profile

I wasn't going to post there was a profile piece in the paper on me yesterday. I certainly wasn't expecting to see a photo of us taking up over half a page. I've had so many comments on the article the past 2 days it's been overwhelming. The photos of our family were terrific. Debbie Miller did a great job writing the piece and she made me very proud of my family. They are more than I have ever deserved.

If you are a subscriber to the Democrat-Gazzette you can follow this link to read the article.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2010/mar/28/paying-it-forward-20100328/


Newspaper portrait

Playing with Noah

Sign up for the Breast Brigade!!!!!

Okay guys we are officially 5 weeks from raceday. In case you didn't know I'm the chair of this years race so I really hope everyone signs up and participates.

I'm still going to push our team though. The Breast Brigade is up and taking recruits. This year's team is captained by Valerie Green and she's working hard to get us back in the top 10 fundraising teams this year. Registering is easy, just go to:

www.breastbrigade.com

and sign up. Then sign your family up. Then recruit 3 friends and sign them up.

You know our story and how breast cancer affected our lives. If you can remember what is was like for Jenna to go through treatment and not be able to pick up and hug our 1 year old, then you remember why we need a cure so no more mothers have to go through this. Do the Race for the Cure, Sleep in for the Cure, bring your dog and Bark for the Cure, or just give some money to the team. It really doesn't matter-just make an impact in some way. We all have a part to play to end this disease.

Chad