This is not the picture I planned on posting today.

Ella and I ran (and walked) a 5K this afternoon. I thought it would be a prime photo opportunity to capture her smiling, proud of her accomplishment, just as she did last week (she is participating in a Girls on the Run program after school). However, this week there was a whole lot of complaining, which led to an increasingly frustrated mother. A cattle prod would have come in handy. Granted it was cold, and 3.1 miles is a long ways for a 3rd grader, but here her devoted mother had taken the afternoon to come encourage and run with her. Couldn't she have dug a little deeper to find joy in the experience? Sigh. I was not feeling particularly keen on pulling out the camera to capture the grumpiness that consumed us both.

So here I resort to the picture of Lucy I took this morning. I promised her "under dogs" on the swing set after she had been so patient to run errands with me. And you can see all the leaves in our backyard that the hurricane brought down this past weekend. Fortunately it was just the leaves that came down--we feared much worse.

Oh and one more random thing. So the girls like to watch shows off our "On Demand" cable feature. Which I don't totally like because they show previews of movies that are not particularly appropriate for young children while the girls are trying to make their selection. I try and shield it as much as possible--but Samantha has now seen the preview for Snow White and the Huntsman a couple of times, and has decided that that is a movie she needs to add to her repertoire. Ella, expresses no interest, as she has not surpassed covering her eyes and ears in the stressful parts of Barbie movies. So as I am putting Sam to bed tonight, she says, "Mom, I would like to see the Snow White movie." I say-- "No Samantha, that is a movie for mostly Moms and Dads." She says, "Well, how old do I have to be to see it?" Me--"13". She says--"Why? Mom, I already know the story. I have read the book." Smart girl. I'm hoping if I dig up the Disney version that might hold her off for a bit.

My timer is up--Good Night.