1/2 Marathon

I have never been a runner. My motto has always been I do not run unless someone is chasing me, and I have pretty much stuck with that for most of my life. Yet I have always had this dream to run a marathon. So last October I laced up and just started, I ran 3 miles with my friend Mary (she is a super star runner, a huge encouragement and inspiration). It was the slowest three miles anyone has ever seen, Mary could have been walking alongside of me running and still beat me. But that did not stop me - I went out again and ran three again, I still felt like I was going to die just a little slower death this time. But I just kept running and running and running... Along the way Laura and I saw that the Prague 1/2 marathon was happening in March and we got this wild idea that we could do this. Remember I have never run before and now here I am training for a race and not just any race but a 1/2 marathon! Crazy. We had no training schedule, no coach just us. Running when we could, in the snow, in the rain and on the rare occasion with the sun shining. We always ran the loop at this very beautiful park next to my house. But we were like lab rats in that we never ran anywhere else and we had no inclines or declines just pretty even same ol same ol and we loved it. Laura and I worked out many a problem together and definitely caught up on all the latest. Something started to happen in those days of running, I began to enjoy it. The freedom, the quiet, my time to think and process and to just be. We did this all winter, signed up for our race and with much anticipation and many what the freak are we doings, race day approached.

Yesterday the sun was shining, the weather warm (I have no idea how to run in this... I have been running in SNOW) we started out for our 13 miles - we held our own for most of it, the last 3 miles we were toast but we just kept putting one foot in front of the other and kept going. Laura yelled "I see the finish line" and tears flowed. My family and friends were cheering us on and so excited for us. It was such a sweet moment for me. To see Phil, to see the kids and to know they so empowered me to do this they counted down the days with me, they encouraged me to go for my runs, they cheered for me along the way - this race was for them as much as it was for me. So 2:32:59 later we crossed the finsih line and I became 13 miles closer to my lifetime goal of 26.

We had much celebration after my blood sugar level returned to normal. Laura and I went to dinner with a bunch of girls, headed to Starbucks for a frothy treat and then spontaneously went for Thai Massages. It was glorious.

Gettin' Ready

In a few short hours, Shanna will be running her first half-marathon!  Woo-hoo!  We went to Old Town a few days ago for her to get her race packet - her number, a shirt, the map, and lots of goodies.  We're already so proud of her!

Representing the U.S. of A.---
"What have I done?"

More baptism pics

Piper's baptism

One of the great perks of being a pastor is being able to baptize my own daughter. We celebrated the baptism of Kathryn Piper Davis yesterday at church, which was a beautiful, special day for all of us. Piper looked simply angelic in her gown (lots more pictures to come), and our whole family was looking sharp, if I do say so myself.
Checking out her new bracelet from Yaya (whom she is named for)...Yeah, it's all about me today...We kept pumping Piper full of Honey Nut Cheerios, so she was ready for the big moment. I shared a few words about baptism in general and then the family came up for us to bless her, pray for her, and baptize her. Lucy and Clark got the giggles during the final prayer, apparently because Piper's hair was sticking up from the water. It was the perfect way for us to officially welcome her into the church.

Dinner out

After we recovered from the Big Hunt, we went out to eat with Tim and Laura, who have become some of our best friends here. They've been with the church since the beginning and help out with lots of church-related activities.
Tim and Laura are almost as cute as us...After dinner we met up with a bunch of Riverside teachers to celebrate Mr. Chisholm's 30th Birthday. His whole family, including his identical twin (who was also celebrating his 30th birthday), had flown into Prague for the celebration - Scottish madness!

The Big Hunt

Saturday was the annual Easter Egg Hunt for school. Remember, this is not your typical hunt that lasts a mere 15-minutes and brightly colored eggs are somewhat hidden under bushes. This is Advanced Egg Hunting... in the woods... on unmarked paths... with mud... and small children. Now that we're in our 3rd year of doing this, we are professionals - we could easily handle one of those Eco-Challenge races now.OK, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself - but we did have a great time. The weather, which had been snowy the last few days, was very nice and there was actual sunshine at several points. The kids did a great job finding their teachers all through the woods, who had questions for them to answer - correct answers resulted in a treat. There were several large Bunnies hopping through the woods too. This was Piper's favorite part. After all the teachers were found, we sat down for a nice picnic at the park entrance and mingled with other families. Then we went home and all crashed!

bible study and sushi

You know you live internationally when you host a bible study and learn how to make sushi all in the same morning. My sweet friend Sung Soon and her little guy Matthew are regulars at the Tuesday morning bible study I host. Sung Soon thinks it is imperative that everyone knows how to make sushi and she declared last week that this week she would teach us. She brought all of the goods including a proper rice cooker (that is still sitting on my counter with rice in it because she could not believe that i didn't have a rice cooker and thinks if I keep it for a few days I will realize that I can not live without one, she may be right). We all learned proper sushi technique and all went home with some. It was a blast. Piper and Matthew hung out after while we cleaned up and they had sushi for lunch - I can not tell you how much sticky rice she had in her hair but she had a lot of fun eating it.

coloring

Lucy and Clark love to color and Piper does not want to miss out on anything so she has decide that she to is an artist. Every meal involves crayons and paper our challenge is the eating of the so called crayons.

no grownups!

Saturday night the Falk kids came over to play and stay up late with our kids... or that is what they thought. Actually Andrea was babysitting them and Sara and Mark came along so that we could go to dinner and to a friends cocktail party with Connie and Al. We made all the fixing for tacos and they had their very own dinner together, several movies and got to stay up till 11 ! They LOVE the Falk's so it was a great night for them and for us.

swim gala

Lucy had her yearly swimming gala (aka swim meet). She had to swim 2 races one lap of freestyle and one lap of backstroke. She finished both and did great. She is swimming against all older kids and I could not believe how focused and excited she was. We also got to hang out with lots of friends so Piper and Clark were also SO excited.

check out my new kicks

Piper is so excited to walk... she has not at this point, just lots of standing and squealing about it. She got some new pink shoes this week that she is very proud about. And we are SO working on these cute bows that Miss Padget made for us for Christmas.

Saturday we had a tea party baby shower for Joanna and baby boy to come. It was fun to lavish her and celebrate this new baby to come. We can not wait to meet him in a few weeks.

sweet snugles

Clark feel asleep on the couch and Miss P could not resist giving him a few sweet snuggles!

more goodbyes

Dot took the kids out for a sweet treat to say goodbye to them. She shared a few words with them and loved on them in their own special love language of ice cream. They are gonna miss her she was a very special person in their lives.

this week at a glance

After a very fun birthday celebration weekend we continued to celebrate...

First we are celebrating Dot. She has been here for two years and it is time for her to return to the States. So we team ladies had a fun night out to celebrate her, share how much we are going to miss her, and anticipate all that God has in store for her. We went to a yummy Indian restaurant that was delicious! Next it was time to celebrate Mark - his birthday was Wednesday and the guys went out on Thursday for a birthday dinner and pub night. We are so grateful for Mark and are also excited to see what God does in and through him this year.

Next a night to celebrate new friends... my Bible study ladies from school decided we needed a night out together. So we went to a little vegetarian restaurant and SO enjoyed getting to know each other better, it was a great night of celebrating new friends for me.

Saturday night we had one more goodbye party for Dot that our whole community was welcome to attend. It was a time to encourage and love on Dot, to pray for her and to roast her just an itty bitty bit!

This is good for you?

If someone had told me I'd be sticking a vacuum up my nose today, I would have said, "Am I back in my fraternity?" But sure enough, a highly-touted home medical procedure here is to clear out your boogers by attaching this little device to your vacuum cleaner. The doctor gave this attachment to us about 8 months ago, but we've never really been brave enough to try until today. Piper's nose has been running non-stop, so we thought we'd try it.

I tested it on my nose just to make sure the suction wasn't too strong and going to pull anything vital out of her head...

Then it was Piper's turn. She actually liked it and it did the trick. Lucy and Clark had turns too, just to be fair. Shanna politely declined.

What will the medical world think of next???

Welcome to Prague

If you arrive at the Prague airport now, you'll be in for a treat. Lucy, who keeps showing up all over town in various newspapers, is now larger than life at a new photo exhibit in Terminal 2. The Prague Marathon photo-exhibit is up through the end of May. We heard about it yesterday and took a quick family trip to see it for ourselves. Yay, Lucy!

Happy Birthday Mama!

We love Mommy!

We got to celebrate Mommy's special birthday over the weekend and had a great time loving her and being together as a family.  The night before her actual birthday, a bunch of us went out for dinner and then went to see "Slumdog Millionaire," which finally opened here last week.  I had told Shanna it was a "romance" (and I still stand by that), but it was definitely not what she expected.  We still enjoyed it a lot, but I don't think Shanna will ask me for movie advice anytime soon.  After the movie some of us went for dessert - I was very impressed with us parents, staying out as late as we did.

The next day, Mommy went for a big run in the morning and we got ourselves ready - wrapping presents and preparing for our big annual Silly Song for Mommy.  When she returned, we presented her with the "Davis Family High School Musical." I was the nerdy teacher, Lucy was the cheerleader, Clark was the sports-dude, and Piper was decked out as the glamour-diva.  Mommy laughed a lot, so mission accomplished!

After that we went out for a quick bite at the nearby Cafe Giraffe.

Then she opened her presents, and after church we had one of her favorites - ice cream pie (which she sort of helped me make).

We love our Mommy!  As I told everyone at dinner at the restaurant, this has been quite an amazing year for Shanna.  She has tackled so many new projects and endeavors - it's like she's a new woman!  Knitting, painting, running, and baking from scratch...  Who is this amazing girl?  She definitely keeps things fun and exciting, and we are so blessed to have her as our Mommy!