Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2007 is a wonderful year for all you, runners and non-runners alike!

Not only is tomorrow the first day of 2007, it's mine and Brent's 8th wedding anniversary. Time has REALLY flown by! It really cracks me up when I look back at our wedding pics, we look like such babies (which we were - we were both 21 - barely 21 for me!)

2006 was a year of change and adventure. There's very little that has gone unchanged in our lives in 2006. I ran my first marathon, and then my second and third. I ran my 3rd, 4th and 5th half marathons. In exactly one year I shaved 25 minutes off my half marathon time. I set PRs at all the distances I ran, which really isn't saying much since I celebrated my second running anniversary this past summer. I placed several times in my division throughout the year, and helped lead my former corporate running team to snag some good awards as well. (I think they're the people who are most upset I've left the company.) We moved. We moved to a completely new side of town and have basically started our lives over again, this time in a community we feel we can really identify with. We moved into a house that needs a lot of work, and as we sat down last night and looked through some of the pics we've taken I literally said "OH MY GOD. I can't believe we bought this house." It's changed THAT much. We've worked like maniacs the past 5 months, and as I've walked around the last few days it finally feels like home. I quit a job I totally hated, working for an absolute ass, for a company that no one would miss if it were gone. Since I don't start my new job until Tuesday I can't really say how it's going to turn out, but either way it was the right decision. They've all been highlights, and most of them have been the result of lots of hard work.

Who knows about 2007?? I know turning 30 in October will be a highlight. And I know Pippin will be fine again, although from talking with the vet the past couple of days it sounds like surgery is going to be in the very, very near future for him. Either way he's a tough little guy and he'll be fine, and spoiled rotten.

Happy New Year everyone and here's to a great 2007! It's time for one last workout in 2007 before I get my NYE's on!

Bedroom Pics

Without further ado.... here are pics from our holiday bedroom overhaul!

First....this is what the room looked like when Mr and Mrs Dirty lived here back in July. WHITE, ugly border, ugly curtains, and ugly furniture. NOT comfortable at all!!! (Or clean!!)








We moved in and painted it a deep green-ish brown, and got rid of that nasty border!! (I have more pics but I would have to locate them on our external hard drive and I am feeling lazy!)








It was finally time to rip up the seriously gross and nasty brown carpet....














And it was just our luck that the floors underneath had loads of chocolate brown paint on them. One section was pretty messed up and instead of properly fixing it they had laid concrete on top of it to "smooth" the floor.














So we spent several pain staking weeks scraping the paint off by hand.














Finally, we were done scraping, sanding, and could start staining.













And finally......the floors were done!














We repainted the ceiling, the baseboards and window trims, and changed out the light fixture and were finally able to move back in!!



















YAY!!! We've started shopping for all new bedroom furniture, curtains, a rug, and artwork so now is the fun part! We're also going to re-do the fireplace tile with something more original looking (gorgeous 2x3 glass tiles would have been on the fireplace back in the day). All of our bedroom furniture is hand-me-downs, so it's time to treat ourselves to something nice that we can hand down one day. I've already picked out some seriously hot new bed linens, and now I just need a new bed to buy them for!

For a larger collection of the remodel process feel free to browse my set on Flickr, it's like a do it yourself tutorial!!!

Christmas in Review!

Hey guys!! Thanks for all the well wishes for Pippin. He really hasn't made any progress this week, but he's getting along quite well for a "3-legged" dog. It's amazing how fast he can move on 3's. He hasn't lost much of his Pippin spunk, either. Any time people have come over this week he's been trying to hop around as much as he can to greet them, and since he can't jump he bounces around until they drop down to his level. The only thing that depresses him is his inability to jump up on his fave couch in the den to sun himself. Brent's planning to build a little ramp for him so he can go up and down as he pleases, though. From talking to the vet today, it sounds more and more likely that he will have to have the surgery. In the next week we should know more. I'd love for him to recover from this based on rest alone, but if this is going to be a reoccurring issue for him I'd much rather him have the surgery now while he's still young. For dogs his size it seems like the recovery from this surgery would be about 12 weeks, with the first two being the roughest. We'll see, and please still keep your fingers crossed for Pip.

So, rewind to Christmas!! With all the work on our now GORGEOUS hardwoods we didn't have a whole lot of time to focus on Christmas! Thurs and Fri night we baked and baked and baked getting ready for holiday visits. We spent Saturday with our families. My grandmother has 24-7 in home health care, and they charge time and a half for the holidays, so parents needed to be with her for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and she really can't travel the couple of hours to Brent's parent's house.) We had a good dinner and got loads of Home Depot gift cards??? Can I ask for anything more? My parents said they had a "good year" so our Christmas bonus was even a little more than usual. Yay!!! They ear-marked it to go towards our kitchen remodel, which is what it would likely go towards anyway.








When we got home it was back to the kitchen for more cooking in prep for RobbRunner's visit. I think every night for several nights leading up to Christmas Eve we were up until around 1 am. More cooking and cleaning, and figuring out what to do with our bedroom furniture! We ended up shoving smaller pieces into a big closet we have, and we set up the rest of the furniture in corners of the dining room. Our dresser became a dessert buffet, our TV cabinet a floral display and the mattresses became a great place for holiday tapestries. It was make it work time!! Robb & family arrived right on time, and Pippin welcomed them with his big fall. Other than that, we had a great visit! Their boys (esp Ben) helped us make a big decision - the spiral staircase is staying. We've gone back and forth a million times about whether or not we would leave it when we expand the upstairs but kids LOVE it, and it's such a novelty. So, we've decided to put the "normal" staircase in the dining room, because our dining room is massive. The kids had a great time decorating Christmas cookies while we finished up cooking dinner. Dinner was a blast, and we had an awesome time hearing about their trip thus far and about what their life was like in general. After dinner we put our feet up while Chris and Jon played music for us. A very lovely evening!! Not only was it the first RBF meetup in our house but it was our first international meetup. (I love the picture Brent took of Robb & family where he forgot how short Ben is!!! He took some good ones, too!)











Later that night we ended up taking to the Emergency vet, so you're all caught up to Christmas now. We had a wonderfully low key Christmas. The night before had been a VERY late one, so we slept in and lounged around. We cooked a whole leg of lamb for lunch and then curled up on the couch with some wine and cheese and slept through most of Elf. Absolutely perfect. Later that night we curled up and watched the Holiday. Two movies in one day??? Unheard of for us. I think the last movie we watched was back in August!!!

Well, Brent is cooking us breakfast so I'm wrapping up here!!! I'll post pics of our BEAUTIFUL new bedroom later!! We slept in it for the first time since last month last night. YEAH!!!

Luxating Patella

I really wish "luxating patella" was still a word I didn't have a clue about.

I think I'll start in reverse with the weekend. Brent already sort of told you about Pippin's big acrobatic attempt. I hate to see the little guy in pain, so I was really relieved we were able to take him to the nearby Pet Emergency Clinic. We knew it wasn't a broken bone, because he wasn't whimpering or crying, just not putting any pressure on his foot at all. They told us to take him to our regular vet on Tuesday for a 2nd opinion and possibly X-rays. Since we've moved I don't have a regular vet, but luckily I had already made an appointment for Pippin at the Berry Hill Animal Clinic for this afternoon for his annual shots. Great timing, huh?? I had looked them up on the internet, read good reviews about them, and had a recommendation from a friend so I already felt good about them being his new vet, but when the really nice vet tech at the Emergency Room said she worked there (and she's also a BT owner) I felt really good about them being Pippin's care provider.

Since Christmas Eve he still hasn't put any weight on his leg, and we've been carrying him in and out to go to the bathroom. He's mostly been sleeping, and we truck him around wherever I go. Pippin's main goal in life is to have two eyes on me at all times. Every once in a while he gets a little burst of energy and will try rolling around in the laundry, or licking the dishwasher but all those tasks are a little bit tougher on 3 legs. We've moved little floor mats all around so it's easier for him to hang in our now 99% hardwood/tile house. He was super amped to go for a ride, and he's always a fan of the going to the vet.

I totally don't see how people have children. When they flipped him over on his side and held him down to examine his leg I wasn't sure if I was going to cry, pass out, or puke. His little eyes were so scared, but he wasn't in any pain. After they were finished moving his leg around to examine it I ended up sitting down in the chair because I swear I felt like I was going to pass out. Pippin has a luxating patella, which is also what the emergency room vet said was wrong. I've now done loads of research on the internet and this is fairly common in Bostons and other small-ish breeds. Basically his knee cap is dislocated and won't go back into place. The vet said his other leg has it some as well, and that this was something he has had for a while, triggered by his fall (which would make this a trauma induced case of luxating patella). He said it's a grade 3, meaning he popped it back in place but it came right back out. Which also means he might have to have surgery. For now he gave us some anti-inflammatories (which knocked the guy OUT), he should rest and avoid being hyper (fat chance!!) and we have a follow-up in a week and a half. Pippin's not in pain - he just holds that foot up at all times when he walks. The doc said 1/3 of his limping is caused by pain/swelling from the fall, 1/3 is caused by him having this condition already, and the other 1/3 is caused by him being scared to try to adjust and put the leg down. We're trying to encourage him to walk around a bit more, and test his leg out. I read a lot of different posts about this condition on the Boston Terrier Woof Board and I'm really hoping since this episode was caused by a trauma that in a few days he'll be fine.

I would say that if anyone has any advice about this condition to leave a comment. But, I was catching up on my NIT reading this afternoon and saw where guest blogger, neighbor Jag, was filling in this weekend and did a post wishing Pippin good health. Check out the comment someone left. Geez. That's loads of happy.

Have a great day everyone! Hope you're all enjoying some time off like we are, or are enjoying a lighter than normal week at work. OH, and our hardwood floors are FINISHED and we can move the furniture back into our bedroom tomorrow! YEAH!! And they are BEAUTIFUL!!

And I promise I will post about our great visit with Robb, his wonderful wife and insanely well behaved boys tomorrow. We have some really great pics from the meetup, too. It was loads of fun!!

Rachel

Daredevil Pippin struts away from another stunt!

First, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season!

Growing up I alway heard about people having to go to the emergency room at some inopportune time like the holidays and last night was our night. We had an amazing visit with Robb and his family (which we will post about later) but Pippin was more excited than any of us and leaped over Rae's shoulder and landed awkwardly on our hardwoods... He limped more and more but was still determined to jump on all the kids to greet them. About 10:30 we thought we should get a second opinion. So, after the nurse examined his leg and gave him an anti-inflammatory shot he is resting. She thinks he just bruised his hip and needs to rest. Until then, if you drive by our house you may see me carrying Pippin out in the middle of the yard so he can go potty (he doesn't do well with stairs...)

-brent d.

At the emergency pet hospital...

Ta-da!

I think this is an excellent use of my treadmill!

AMEN!

Pippin: On the Naughty List???

Hey all!! I hope you're all doing well and having a wonderful holiday season. This one has just been crazy for us and I hope to catch up with everyone after Christmas!!

We're still working on those $$##$$ floors. We are up to the poly stage, so the end is very much in sight, but we won't make it for Christmas. Brent is at home today putting the first coat of poly on, and we plan for 3 coats. Then it has to sit for 72 hours before furniture can come back in, so I'm currently trying to figure out how to incorporate mattresses and box springs into our Christmas Eve dinner. Maybe we should go for an Asian type theme? I'm just glad all the paint stripping and sanding is finished, that nearly killed us.

And Pippin - well, he's feeling a little ignored. We come home, work on the room (doors shut), and then pretty much go to sleep. You know he's sad when I woke up Saturday morning, went downstairs, and the poor thing is sitting outside the bedroom door, thinking we were already in there working. And when he feels ignored he acts out. So far he's destroyed a pair of Brent's underwear (from the laundry basket) and two of my fake mistletoe balls. He's also been "shopping" in all of our holiday gift bags. This year we're not wrapping anything, it's all going in gift bags. There's just no time for elaborate wrappings (or shopping, either!). Every year we always give little rawhide candy canes to all the dogs Pippin knows. We make little gift tags with Pippin's face on it and tie it on with ribbon. I had stuck one in Brent's grandparent's gift bag for their dog. When we came home from work Monday night (after greeting us) Pippin went tearing through the house with a toy in his mouth. Pretty normal. Then Brent noticed there was ribbon hanging from it. Not normal. The little sneak had gone through the gift bags - found something he liked - and hid it until we came home from work. Earlier in the week one of our friends had gotten him a bone for Christmas - also in a gift bag. When we got home yesterday he stared at the bag, then stared at me, and started whining. Apparently this time the little guy had found the bag he liked, but chose not to ask for it instead of just thieving it away. He's really into Christmas this year but with this kind of behavior I may just have to stick coal in his stocking. Pippin needs to learn to be a giver and not a taker. =)

Well, guess I'd better get back to work! Tomorrow is my last day here. YAYYYYY! I can hardly contain myself! I've got a mile long list of groceries to get for all our holiday cooking endeavors so I am ready for the work day to be over so I can get on with the good stuff.

And running? Well, that hasn't really been happening much. It's not like we have a 50K next month or anything. HA! I had a whopping total of 6 miles last week and this week I have 4 so far. Blah!!!! I'm really close to having 1200 miles for the year (my goal), so I am going to try to bump it up the rest of the year (hopefully).

In case I don't get to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas everyone!!! (Or Happy Hanukkah, which is almost over!!)

Rachel

I'd settle for semi-lean

Thought I had yesterday as I expertly pulled out of the Publix parking lot while swinging back by work to pick up Brent before we headed home: "I am turning into one lean, mean driving machine."

Thought I had about a half an hour later on I-24 when I heard that all too familiar sound of metal scraping metal: "Well, maybe I'm not so lean."

Yup, jot down December 13th for Wreck #3. Luckily they are each getting progressively smaller and less traumatic. We were headed home, tired, with a plan of staying up ALL NIGHT until every last bit of annoying chocolate brown paint was scraped off our floors. I'm just done, over it. Ready to move on. And I now hate chocolate brown. And I used to really like chocolate brown. A guy is out at work this week and Brent's filling in for him, so he had had a REALLY long day. The Interstate was backed up, and of course no traffic report said anything about a wreck, and the electronic signs on the Interstate didn't either. And for some reason MY lane was especially backed up. I checked my mirrors, didn't see anyone in Lane #3, turned my blinker on to get over, and then heard the screech of metal on metal. I had no clue where this car came from!! We sighed, pulled across Lane #4 to the shoulder and got out. The two girls in the Expedition were fine, we were fine. We looked at our car for damage and it was just a black scrape on my front left panel, right above the wheel. She couldn't really look at her car because cars where whizzing by at ungodly speeds, yelling expletives at us. (Nice. Thanks for your assistance.) It took us forever to figure out the right number to call, and even longer for the police to show up. The day that WAS nice and warm was now really chilly with strong, cold winds courtesy of the tractor trailers buzzing by. I still didn't have a clue how I had hit her. We talked about it and she had been right behind me in the stopped lane and we ended up merging at the same time. She must have really whipped fast, and was probably turned around and didn't see me pulling out as well. I clipped her on her back tail, right around her right side back wheel well. So whose fault was it??? I really don't know. It was such a small wreck that when the officer got there he didn't do a full police report, just an information exchange since the damage was so minor. So I guess it's technically a no fault/pure accident for everyone, and we won't even report it to insurance because it seems like we can just wax it out, it's so minor. I think her scratch is worse because it looked like paint had rubbed off, so I think that also technically means I Won. We were all very nice and civilized, they were on their way to dental hygeniest school and pretty happy to be late and miss part of class. I offered them some of the 3 kinds of milk I had bought at Publix. What can you do?? This crap just seems to happen and more often to us than most people. I may even send her a Christmas card, and the other lady who hit me coming out of Arby's back in June. Why not?? Apparently traffic accidents are becoming a great way to meet people for us.

So that bit of excitement put us even further behind on working on our floors. We did stay up until 12:30 working on them, and only have one small section left to strip. By then we were delirious, laughing at most everything, and I was starting to get dizzy and nauseated from the fumes. Then we can finally start sanding and staining them. I'm WAY behind on my blog reading so I hope you are all well! And if you're looking for a nice dental hygeniest I think I can hook you up!

No Jacket Required!/What would you see???

We may be overweight, marry our cousins, have some of the worst schools in the country, be completely unable to construct a proper sentence or retain all of our teeth but there is one thing we have - awesome winter weather. 65 degrees today when I went out holiday shopping at lunch!! Woo hoo!!! As much as I'd like to have a white Christmas at least once in my life I never complain about not needing a jacket most of the winter. And somehow life would seem less exciting if the tiniest, slightest chance of a snow flurry didn't create near riot status at Kroger.

If you haven't already heard, RobbRunner and his family are swinging through Nashville as part of their tour of the States at Christmas. Yay!!!! I love blogger meetups and their family seems like so much fun. So, what should they be sure to see/do here in Country Music USA??? It's so hard to recommend to people what the must-do's are! They have 4 boys, so if you have any great ideas of things kids love to do here please let me know!!!

Just say no to Pink

Hey guys! I've got just a quick second to post this morning before I need to start getting ready for work so I thought I'd take it. The weekend was an absolute whirlwind! I swear I need more days in the week or hours in the day. I'd take either.

Friday night we had dinner with our friends A & A at Bricktops. I swear it's been forever since we saw them. And I had the unfortunate experience of being the person who ordered the pink drink. Prickly Pear Margarita didn't sound like it would be pink and in a martini glass, but it was. Just thought I'd warn you guys. (And it wasn't very good, either.) BUT, my Mongolian porkchops were, and they were ENORMOUS! Two massive porkchops. I couldn't even finish one of them so we brought the rest home and split it for lunch the next day, making me feel like our expensive meal did have some value. We had a lot of fun catching up, and then Brent and I had a few minutes to spend shopping at a nearby mall, where I've never seen so many teens with Coach purses.

Saturday morning we laced our shoes up and headed out for a long run on the trails at PWP. This was our first return trip since the Monkey 3 weeks ago. Memories!! We did 11 miles of trails and I swear it nearly killed me. I had zip energy, and I kept thinking about all the other things I needed to do. I was also hot-cold-hot as I shedded my layers. It started out in the high 20's and as the Arctic cold front we had at the end of the week pushed outta here it was in the low 40's by the time we were done. Of course I had my Monkey tech shirt as my bottom layer and met another Monkey tech shirt wearer towards the end of my run. We admired each other's shirts equally. I saw one other Monkey and two other Monkey dogs out there! We did stop to try to break some ice in a creek - it was totally frozen! And we stopped to snap some pics of the frozen "waterfall" area (it's more of an area where some rocks are taking a tinkle). It was really pretty and had a tiny bit of snow on it. We had the tiniest flurries you've ever seen Friday but it didn't matter, we were all rushing the windows at work!!

Well, my time is up so I need to get ready for work! I'll post about the rest of the weekend later, and of course it still involves those stupid floors. We'd already be done with this project if some evil person along the way hadn't painted them with 100 layers of thick, chocolate brown paint. But, 7 days into this project I have finally found a method of stripping them that seems to work, but it's just so time consuming.

Take care!!!

Rachel

I'm EXPECTING!

........that you'll all be glad to hear I HAVE A NEW JOB!! Ha! Had ya there for a second, huh? But, as of Jan 2nd I will be MOVING ON! My last day with the current crack house is the 22nd, so I'll have a nice week off of not relaxing and working on projects around the house before I start the new job. I've very excited, and if you're someone who knows me drop a line and I'll tell you where I'm going (since most of you don't actually know where I work anyway)! I'll be doing something far more up my alley and less CPA-ish, which I'm really excited about. And my new boss seems pretty nice and normal! They called all my references, made me take two tests, two interviews and a drug test. Wow!! They did some homework. It's in downtown, and only 2.5 miles from our house. I can walk, run, bike, ride the bus (or drive!) to get to work! And in the life that is mine even quitting was difficult!! I got the offer Friday afternoon and planned to quit Monday with three weeks notice. Naturally my boss called in sick with strep throat on both Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday I just wanted to tell SOMEONE! So, I told my boss's boss and then my boss was back Wednesday and I told him then. Strangest reaction EVER from him, I think he's on some heavy painkillers or a good dose of crack but as of now he's being very nice about it and happy for me.

But don't worry, I will still have two weeks of fantastic redneck office stories to share, and this really is the best season of office stories!! Decorations are going up like MAD! The "Snowy Acres Trailer Park" tree went up today in a nearby department - what says Christmas like a tree with Virgina Slims and "blue balls", phone wire, feather boas, beef jerky and hot sauce? And in my department - how about a metal snowman with a cigarette taped to its mouth??? I have pics of the redneck tree but HR made the snowman lose its cigarette before I could capture that on film. Ahhh....the holidays in the South. And Dirty Santa is next week!! YAY!

Good luck to everyone cranking out marathons this weekend!! Lana will be rocking Vegas, David is taking on Hunstville (Rocket City), & Just 12 Finish will be rocking White Rock (Dallas) along with Lance. Lots of local runners are running Rocket City, too, so good luck to all of you!!

Well, I have GOT to work on our Christmas cards! I feel so guilty every day as we get ours! Brent's working hard on sanding the floor right now so hopefully we'll make a lot of progress on that this weekend as well. Tomorrow night we're having dinner with some friends and then our neighborhood's tour of homes is Saturday night. AND, we're going to get a long trail run in, too. Have a great weekend everyone!

Rudolph 5K Race Report

Better late than never, right??

So last Friday night was the Rudolph Red-nose 5K race. It precedes the annual Christmas parade, and runs much of the parade route. Storms came through Thursday night - the ones that gave the Midwest lots of snow and just rain for us. And wind, LOADS of wind. It woke me up twice and I in turn woke Brent up! We had 60mph winds overnight!! Crazy. And our 70 degree temps were gone and replaced with the 30's. Blah!! Friday was cold, but not as cold as they had predicted, making it difficult to pickout what to wear. I went with a medium-warmth running jacket and tights, with my Monkey shirt under and Brent went with his standard shorts and long sleeve techs. The temps were in the low 30's but it just felt bitter! We got to the race about 45 minutes early - this race is actually on our street! (Just 17 blocks down!) It's a large race so we wanted to get there early, secure parking, and make our way through the crowds. Good plan!! We had to park really far away from the packet pickup, so we stayed warm jogging back and forth. There were a lot of seriously confused people there, so we decided to line up fairly close to the start. Excellent plan. We spotted someone else in a Monkey shirt at the line-up so we chatted with him for a while. The gun went off and after a few elbows to the head (seriously not necessary) I made it across the line. And Brent was GONE. About 5 minutes earlier he said he was just running it for fun but I guess he changed his mind! The Woodland St Bridge aka HILL was up first. Immediately I was thinking about how much I hate hills!! I was pressing hard but Brent was still waaaay ahead of me. We made it over the bridge and onto 2nd Av. It was SO pretty! All the lamposts were decked out in lights and the City Tree was lit. So pretty!! All the parade spectators were cheering for us, and two high school guys passed me, dressed as elves and passing out candy canes. And the Grinch passed me. Oh well. I was pushing hard and swearing to never do another 5K. We ran up Broad, and that means more uphill. Grrr. I saw the lead guys coming back, a pack of 5 or 6. It was so cool to see them!! Then I saw Brent not far ahead of me and I could tell he was slowing down. We turned around just before Mile 1, and not far afterwards I caught up to Brent. For a while we stayed together, but as we went back uphill on 2nd he started dropping back. Just before we were back at the stadium we hit Mile 2. Then the most boring mile ever - a full loop around the dark Titans Stadium. OMG, I was so ready to be finished, didn't care about my time, and was SO angry to be running a dark, lonely lap around the outside of the stadium. FINALLY, I made it to the finish line at 24:22, 6 seconds slower than my PR. I was actually pretty happy with my time but not my effort. It felt like SO much work to run fast. I have no clue why I sign up for 5Ks so close to marathons!! My legs felt dead and every hill made me an angry person!! My face was freezing and I was a total mess!! Brent showed up 10-15 seconds behind me and we got some water and discussed how much we hate 5Ks. He ran back to the car to get his camera and some warmer clothes for us and I hung around the finish line, totally missing my coworker and his son's first 5K finish. Brent came back with my jacket and we ended up finding them in the warm finishers tent. I saw on the results sheet that I was 4th, and I was hoping that wasn't net of moving one of the top 3 finishers out of my division. It was, so we ended up waiting on the awards ceremony FOREVER for nothing, and I wasn't even close to the 3rd place time. BUT, next year when I'm in the 30-34 I would have had 2nd!!

We ran out to catch the parade (most of which we missed......). What a blast! I had my picture made with everyone in a costume and we had lots of fun cheering at the floats. Once again people yelled out at Brent about the fact that he was wearing shorts in the 30 degree temps. It's his trademark now!!! We had a great time, and you can view my set of race and parade pics in my Flickr account. I'm too lazy and exhausted to post pics!!! We bought our tree last night - our very first REAL tree. So exciting!! AND, a nice break from working on the stupid floor in our bedroom!! We've moved upstairs to the guest room until we're done, and Brent said it was the best sleep he's ever gotten last night so there's another reason to come and visit!

Have a great night!!!

Stripping

Hey guys!!! Ugh. Anyone ever refinished hardwood floors? Thank goodness we only have one room to do, I would hate to do a whole house.

Last night we ran the Rudolph Red Nose 5K right before the Nashville Christmas parade. It was fun, I finished in 24:22 which I'm not entirely happy about. I got 4th out of 44, which sucks. I'd rather be 10th or 15th, anything other than 4th. The awards afterward took so long we missed most of the parade, which also sucked. But, we did have a highly entertaining time at the parade and took some seriously funny pictures. (I swear I am SUCH a midget!! What's up with that????) Anyway, you'll just have to wait on the race report, parade report, and the awesome pics because I am ZONKED and need a shower like a mutha. And Nashville - you should be so proud to have us. We are the life of EVERY parade.

Today we had some yummy eats from the bakery for breakfast and then started in on Project # 3,232,451. We moved all of the furniture out of our bedroom - totally freaking Pippin out. He thinks we're moving again, I think. He did find his Kong, and we were both pretty happy about that. Those things aren't cheap. From there we ripped the carpet up, then the nasty carpet pad and that's pretty much when the fun ended. There's really only one bad spot of flooring. About 5 boards are sunk, one broken. They put CONCRETE on top of them before they put the carpet down. The other thing that sucks - the floors are painted. We called the guy we bought the house from to see if he had ended up with any extra boards from the house he's been redoing. He has also had to work with the painted floors and has recommended stripping them because the rental sanders get really bogged down with the paint. The paint could also be lead based, so it's probably best to strip anyway. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. (We've been wearing respirators rated for lead paint and goggles, so we are being very safe. We're such grown ups.) Did I say 'ugh'??? The rest of the day has been spent with the annoying, pain staking task of pulling up all the tiny little carpet tacks/staples. It just makes you want to set a fire to the room. Which we sort of almost did with one of the plug ins sunk in the floor but major crisis was averted. Pippin spent the entire day sitting on the other side of the sealed door crying and whining. I need a doggy respirator for him (he already has boots!)

So, the room is all cleared and ready for phase 2: stripping. It actually already smells INFINITELY better in there. That carpet was so old and musty, and bothered our allergies like crazy. Now the room smells like an old house, which is perfect! I will be SO glad when this project is over. And as tired as I am I remind myself that a) it's really in much better shape than I expected and b) luckily it's only one room!! We took some camera phone pics from today that Brent posted below.

So, off to shower and then to an art opening. Yeah!! And then, we get to try out the guest room for the first time! If only someone was coming to see us in January to run an ultra?!?!?

... it's up!

The carpet is GOIN' DOWN!

I mean figuratively, not literally...