Running into a brick wall

Redirection....

2010-03-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

I still blog, just not here. I still run, just not crazy distances. Life is too short right now to spend it all training, so if you do want to read about what we're up to you can see our daily adventures over at Lilli's blog.

We think she's pretty stinking cute and definitely worth a bookmark!

Shredding It

2009-07-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hellloo! So, I never really intend to forget about this blog, but in the reality of all things considered in our crazy lives of work, and baby, and of course still renovating our house (3 years in now...we'll never be done. ever.) it just happens.

But when you have such a cutie-patootie playmate, can you blame me????
And can you believe she's already going to be six months old THIS WEEK???

I can't. And I birthed her.

But I do keep up her private blog quite well, and Facebook, so if you're not linked into me in either of those places shoot me your digits in the comments and we'll be friends and get you invited into the baby party.

Exercise stuffs - I am having a way hard time finding my mojo post-baby. I did great during the 3.5 months I had off, and then once I got back to the "real world" the total abscence of much free time had made it hard. I got back down to my pre-preg weight 19.5 weeks after she was born (which means I lost the 37 moo-cow pounds my body put on in 19.5 weeks. Not bad.) But it's just.not.the.same. I'm still about a pants size up from what I was, so there are all kinds of cute Express slacks just staring at me from a box in the corner of our bedroom, while I wear my fat pants day in and day out. And I am not technically 3 lbs less than pre-preg, but they still stare at me. And it's defeating.

I genuinely don't want to run insane distances right now. I want to nap and play and make fun memories, so that's what we do. Except the napping part, that's just a new mom pipe dream. But we do play and have loads and loads of fun, and I think those are the things that will matter most to me down the line. I work out most every day during lunch, as always. My running is getting faster and faster - yesterday I hit my 4-miler at an avg pace of 8:31, including warm-up cool down, so I'm getting closer to my pre-baby pace (that # should be closer to an 8.)

I finally had enough of this awful body image so after some tears on Sunday I'm getting refocused. Back to strict eating, not so many treats or conveince fatty foods (not that we're as bad as pretty much all of America on that, but we haven't been as strict on that stuff lately), and back to focusing on toning and strength. I started Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred on Monday, so every night as soon as Lilli goes to sleep I do the 20-min workout. And while I admit I am nowhere near my best shape I thought I was decent - until I can barely walk yesterday and today! My upper body is so weak and I am really feeling it there and also in my legs, which seems so crazy! I wish I felt it more in the abs, so I may rotate out 2 nights a week to my strict ab workout and the other 5 to Jillian, we'll see.

And my next race is fast approching - The East Nashville Tomato Festival 5K on Aug 8th. If you live in Nashville come out and run it - it benefits the Y and all of its programs, so it's for a great cause! And you can run with Lilli and I! The Tomato Festival will be going on in our neighborhood that same day, so it's an awesome day to hang out on the East Side and eat, drink, run and be merry.

Anyway, that's the updates from here. Hopefully by refocusing myself to exercise I can refocus some energy on this site!

Take Care!!!
Rachel

5K for Fatherhood - 2009!

2009-06-29T19:39:00.001-07:00

I guess technically this was not her first 5K. Technically her first 5K was this same race, just last year, when I was somewheres around 10 or 11 weeks pregnant. This race was the "race that started them all" for us. I first ran it back in 2004 on a whim. A friend who lived a couple of blocks over had just started running and we had started running in the evenings with her. We decided to put our two weeks of experience to the test and found this 5K at someplace called "Shelby Park". Little did I know on that June day that it would be the first of many races, and in a few years we would only live a half a mile away from Shelby Park.

I don't have any pics of us racing from 2004, we probably didn't even have a digital camera back then! Here I am - super skinny after my first year of running - in 2005. I had just finished my my first half marathon - CMM - a couple of months earlier and thought I was big stuff! I placed in my division for the first time - I think I was either 2nd or 3rd.
Here I am in 2006. Brent must've run it that year because there's only after race pics. I had just finished my first full marathon earlier that year, and this was the first time I'd ever placed first in my division. I tore it up that year - 3 full marathons and tons of age division awards at the shorter stuff! Far and away that was my fastest year of running!

Here I am in 2007. At that point Brent had retired from running and was back to picture taking! I held my ground that year, kept my first place division rank and was even the third female overall. Not bad!!!

Enter 2008! The year of the preggo!!! I took it slow and easy, so no hardware, no PRs, just another race for the recordbooks. And here's how long it's been since I pinned on a race number - late October! I think I was around 28-30 weeks pregnant? Something like that...

Want to make someone mad? Fly by them when you're enormously pregnant....or pushing a running stroller. I look so short here!

I think in years past the race has started at 7:30, but this year's start time was 7 am. Blah!!! Although we certainly don't even remember what it's like to sleep in we do try to keep little bit asleep until around 7 on Saturdays. Well, it would've been a fat chance today anyways. She started stirring around 3:30 am. Ugh. She must've been super excited about the race. In an effort for me to try to get a good night's sleep I put in earplugs and Brent said he got up with her about 4 times to replace her paci. I think this may be a fussiness from the teething situation that we're not a big fan of! Ironically enough, she fell back to a deep sleep right around alarm time at 6 am. We already had all our gear laid out the night before, so we got dressed, feed Lilli and headed down to the park. It was already wickedly muggy before the race even started. I wish the race was at a cooler time of year, but it's always right after Father's Day since it's a race to benefit inner city kids who don't have a father figure.

Lilli and I tried to start in what looked like a good spot in the pack, but I quickly found we had started way too far back. It's very frustrating when inexperienced runners don't know where to line up. If you don't know - GO TO THE BACK!!! It's so hard in the beginning to get around slow people, and stinking impossible with a running stroller. The first section is very narrow on the Greenway, so we passed when we could and twice I got so frustrated we jumped off the pavement and ran through the grass. Why have a top of the line runner if you never go off road?? Brent was exactly where he always is around the halfway point to cheer and take pics, and then off she and I went to finish via a lap around the lake and back to the start! All of the volunteer course monitors would cheer Go Baby Go! when we'd pass, and I had one sweet girl tell me she didn't know how I was going so fast in that heat with a stroller! I had several people ask if I could push them as well, and heard a couple of people tell each other they're way too slow if a baby is beating them! Ha!

Anyway, it was really hot and muggy this morning. The path is not very shaded, so it was just sticky and sunny. My first mile was around 9:30, which could've easily been a 9 if I wasn't stuck behind so many people. Mile 2 and 3 were each right around 10, and I crossed the finish line with a watch time of 30:03. Not bad, but I would've REALLY liked to be under 30. And it's a far, far cry from my usual low 24:00's. My overall pace ended up being 9:47 for the 3.1 miles.

Here we are heading around the final curve, heading for the finish:
Here's Lilli after the finish: She woke up really quickly once we weren't running anymore.
Last year and this year Vince Gill served as the celeb race chair. He pretty much says Go! and then stands at the finish line cheering. Last year I had my picture made with him (and told him I was pregnant, making him only about the 4th person to know at that point) so this year I wanted mine and Lilli's pic with him. Vince doesn't know a thing about running - and he really doesn't like touching sweaty people. I kept getting closer to him and he'd back away. Vince really needs to RUN it. But he might start with figuring out how long the race is - he made the comment that many people here can run the 5 miles faster than he can drive it. Buddy, a 5K is 3.1 miles, not 5. Regardless, Lilli was totally unphased by his celebrity status. Atta girl!
Just like last year, Vince performed a few songs before the awards ceremony. Last year he took requests, but considering none of the runners nor the inner city families knew any of his songs, it was a bit awkward when no one requested anything. This year he sang three songs, none of which we knew. We like his "Mountain" song about his brother's death, but he didn't do that one. It was still really good! (for Vince Gill and all!)

We didn't win an award today, I was only about 30 seconds off 3rd place in my division though. And I totally could've gotten first in my division if I had run solo. But, Lilli doesn't need no stinking medal - she had the best prize of all, her paci on a string:

Hanging with Daddy post-race, telling him how fast we were and how many people we passed!

I got a race number for her baby book (which I haven't touched in.....4 months....). I think she had fun!

I'm not sure what our next race together will be, probably Tomato Festival 5K in August. I won't run Oktoberfest with her, I'd like to PR there and it's a very crowded and hilly race so she'll just have to be my cheering section for that one!

Have a great night!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day from Lilli & Pippin!

Weeks 3 -5

2009-05-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I haven't done so great in keeping my running blog updated! But you can you blame me when you have such a cute little face to keep you company all day??Running is going great. It hasn't been tough at all to get my 20 miles in each week for Wk 3 & 4. I don't have my stats right here with me, but I think I had 21.5 miles in Wk 3 and 21 miles last week. I've been able to do my toning on average 3-4 times per week, I wish I had more time for it but I work out my abs after Lilli goes to bed and sometimes I am just BEAT at that point! On the pretty afternoons we also walk a 2-mile path in the neighborhood, prob about 3 days a week since there has been a lot of rain lately! Last Saturday Brent and I ran 5 miles with her in the running stroller, and 3 mornings this week she and I were able to run outside. Man, talk about a workout - pushing a baby in a running stroller around some of the hills here will wear you out!!!! Today I had to run on the dreadmill because it's been POURING all day! UGH! Poor Pippin has been in bathroom limbo, just running outside long enough to let a little out!And so next week it all changes - hi ho, hi ho, back to work I go and off goes Lilli to daycare. I don't look forward to watches and alarm clocks and heels and slacks again!!! She sleeps great - from about 9/9:30 until 7:30 in the morning, so I get plenty of sleep these days! And she's been doing that for a while, so it's going to be a massive adjustment getting back up at o'crack of early since I'm going to start working 6:30-3:30. Yawn.My goal was to be back at pre-preg weight when I went back, but I'll be going back 3 pounds shy of that goal, which isn't bad. Considering I had 37 pounds to lose, getting rid of 34 pounds in 14 weeks isn't too shabby. But things don't fit the same way, and it's really going to take more than 3 pounds for them to look right, so apologies to all the coworkers who are forced to watch me paint myself into my pants for the next few weeks!

I'm really happy with how my April turned out, I lost an average of 2-3 pds per week and also hit my 20 mile goals each week pretty easily. In May I hope to really improve my speed. It's coming along, and I'm getting a lot better & stronger each day. From Mon-Wed I shaved about two minutes off my 4 mile time, which is pretty good for such a short run! I'll be back to lunchtime workouts, sans Lilli and running strollers, so hopefully I can really focus on speed and intensity more than I can right now when there's always paci-s to replace.

Lilli is cheering for all the runners at the Pig this weekend!!!
She had a great time cheering for all the runners last week at CMM here!
Can you believe she's already 3 months old??? (And no, the cupcake WAS NOT lit!)My baby doesn't drink out of sissy bottles!
Have a great weekend and good luck to everyone at the Pig!!!!!

Rachel

Week 2 in Review

2009-04-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope you all had great Easter weekends! This will prob be short due to the sleeping baby on my chest and I'm not so great typing with one hand!

Here's how Week 2 (last week) went:

Sunday: Killer Butt DVD (45 minutes)
Mon: 4.5 miles
Tues: 4.25 miles, Perf Abs (17 mins)
Wed: 4.25 miles, Perf Abs (17 mins)
Thurs: 4.25 miles, Aft stroll w/ friend + Lilli (prob a mile)
Fri: 3.25 miles
Sat: No formal, but we walked several miles at Opryland Hotel

Total run: 20.5 miles versus goal of 20 miles!

So once again I hit my goal and am back to my usual mileage (when I'm not training for anything!). I'm still focusing on getting back into shape and for right now am not adding a long run in. I wish I had had more time to tone, but it can be really tough to motivate myself to do that late in the evening when I'm tired from wrangling Lilli all day! It can also be tough to motivate myself to run first thing in the morning, but I'm just focusing on the weight loss and I know it will be worth all the hard work! I'm down to just 8 more pounds to go, so I'm getting there!!!!! I've got 2.5 more weeks off, and then it's back to work! It will be so great to see all my lunchtime workout buddies again!

Take care!!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, we hope you had a great one!Week 2 of my "comeback" review to come later, but the short version is it went pretty well and I exceeded my goal of 20 miles!

Week 1 in Review

2009-04-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday!! Week 1 of my "comeback" went great, as well as I could really expect. I feel like if I keep making myself do my toughest workout first thing in the am while Lilli (normally) takes a pretty decent nap I can make a good go of it. Here's how it ended up for the week:

Sunday: Burn and Firm Pilates DVD (50 mins)
M: 3.5 miles, Walking with Stroller (prob 2 miles), Perf Abs DVD (17 mins)
T: 4 miles, Perf Abs DVD (17 mins)
W: 4 miles
Th: 4 miles, Perf Abs
F: 2 miles, Walk with Stroller (prob 2 miles)
Sat: Rest Day (but still walked 1 mile to go out for ice cream!)

My goal for the week was 17 run miles and I ended with 17.5 so that's a Win! My weekly weight loss goal is 3 lbs, and I ended up losing 2 pounds. (The previous wk I lost 3). I can't be upset with that, 2 pounds is still something and makes a big difference in how things are fitting. I wasn't horribly upset with the Easter dress size I ended up buying, either. It's still not my goal size at all, but much better than the awful size I was in just 3 weeks ago. All that to say, I still have 11 pounds to lose and hope I can do most of that in these last 4 weeks I have off.

A lot of spring showers kept Lilli and I from strolling as much as we usually do. She even had her first "take cover in the closet" during one severe round Thurs afternoon. It really didn't seem like a bad one to me, but with her here I wanted to keep us all safe. (On a side note Brent couldn't believe I didn't snap a few pics of me, Pippin and Lilli in the closet - that really WASN'T priority #1 at the time!!)

It's still certainly not easy to get running in with a 10 wk old around. Some runs involved me popping off the dreadmill a billion times to replace a paci, swaddle a fussy, sleepy baby, and there were a few times things in the dining room fell and crashed - like Pippin's dog food on one very happy morning for him! Nothing like finishing a run smelling like sweat mixed with 5 pounds of Iams dog food. But, I am very committed to getting back in shape and as much as I dread my solitary morning runs in a stuffy dining room it's just what HAS to be done.

Have a great week!

Week 0

2009-04-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! So getting back into the running game is going GREAT! Yay!!! I consider this week my first "real" week back, but I did start getting back into my routine last week, I just decided I wouldn't start logging it until now. So, with last week considered Week 0 and just a warmup, here's how I did:

Mon: (I don't remember! Prob Killer Butt!)
Tues: 3 miles running
Wed: 3.25 miles running
Thurs: Killer Butt DVD
Fri: 3.75 miles running
Sat: 4 miles running

Anyway, for the week I ended up with 14 run miles. I also walk a couple miles with Lilli most afternoons, if it's not raining or we're not out shopping. And I did several abs toning sessions. I lost about 3 pounds, which was my goal for the week. I didn't write it all down so I don't remember, but this week I'm starting to log my workouts again and keep up with it all. Last week's #1 goal was to gradually build my mileage back up to my normal weekday 4 miles, now it's to maintain and work on speed. This week's goal for running is 17 miles and I'm already 11.5 miles in, so I'm well on my way.

I run in the mornings first thing after Lilli's first bottle (sometime between 6:30-7:30). She naps best in the morning, so instead of slunking back to bed I get my booty on my awful treadmill and sweat it out. I have the tiniest little treadmill - seriously we paid about $200 for it about 6 years ago - I've gotten that out of it and much, much more! It's hard to go fast, it's really intended more for walking, but I'm thankful I have it right here while I need it. It's much easier than toting a baby down to the Y, trying to hit a good time between feedings and their limited nursery schedule. When I'm back to work (4.5 more weeks) it should be easier since I'll be back to my lunchtime workouts at the Y. I do my toning sessions in the evening when Brent's home. So, all that to say it is easily possible to work out with a baby, and not take time away from anyone.

It feels great to be running again and work up a proper sweat!!!! Every week I fit it another thing or two from my "Fat Rachel" closet, and I'm REALLY looking forward to fitting into some of my "Regular Rachel" clothes, hopefully before I go back to work!

And of course I have to leave you with another pic!

Slow and Steady

2009-03-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I really need to get into the habit of updating more often, but between baby and well...does there need to be anything else? Anyway, time is short and there's always something to do, and generally blogging comes pretty much dead last. Can you blame me though??

Lilli, aka Miniature Brent, is doing great. She's two months old now and growing like crazy. She's doing new and cute things every day, even managing to overlook the nasty shots today at her pediatrician and throw a few smiles her way! She sleeps through the night (have I mentioned she's wonderful) and is a good baby most of the time, as long as she's fed and had her naps!

So, running! Thanks to my C-section it's been a slower road back than I would have liked. Around 6 weeks I started having some issues with my stitches, so that delayed running more. I finally started running about a week ago today, and have gradually been adding back more miles and time each day. I'm up to 3.25 miles now (continuous), at a snail's pace, but considering one week ago I ran a mile and felt proud I'll take it! This week I ran Mon, Tues and Wed. I didn't get to today because of her appointment this morning. I've been doing toning exercises at night, so hopefully more things in my closet will start fitting soon. The scale has been stuck for a couple of weeks now, which doesn't thrill me AT ALL. We're also eating very healthily, so between amping up the exercise and eating perfectly, I'm REALLY hoping to shred the remaining 13 or so pounds I still have before I go back to work in a few weeks.

Happy Running!

Ready to Run?

2009-03-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

Oh wow! Is this thing still on???

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted here, but I think I have a 9 lb excuse as to why we're a little busy! I do keep Lilli's (private) blog updated with pics most every day, and most people I keep in touch with on Facebook anyway.

So, Lilli's 5 weeks old + a couple of days and this afternoon I go back to my doc for my check-up. I'm hoping he says I'm ok to start running and working out again because I've still got 15 of my 37 pregnant pounds to lose. Ugh!!! The weather's been so cold here I can't say I've missed running, but I am ready to get back out there and work up a major sweat. I still need to get a running stroller though. As much as I'd love a Baby Jogger or BOB I just can't justify the expense. I think I may get a Giant, they make good bikes so shouldn't their stroller be good? It's very similar to the other two, with 20 inch wheels, so I think it may be comparable at half the price.

As far as 09 races go, I'm not sure. Definitely nothing longer than a half marathon, and maybe not even one of those. The last thing I want to do is spend all Saturday mornings out running a billion miles while the fam is at home having a great time without me. I've got shelves full of medals and trophies but only one baby girl!

So, that's all the workout news around here! And of course..... here's an updated Lilli pic!

Cute Overload

2009-02-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

Yeah, hanging with this little person has def kept me from blogging here and keeping up with my Google Reader. It's hard to believe on Saturday she'll already be 2 weeks old!

In the weight department, I'm already down about 18 of the 37 pounds I gained. Of course a huge part of that is just from delivery (although I've gained a LOT of weight somewheres else since delivery!!!). I ended up with a c-section since she was in a weird position and wouldn't fit through my pelvic bone after pushing for a very long time, so returning to exercise will unfortunately be a little slower than I'd like. We went on two very short strolls last weekend when the weather was pleasant, but it's been insanely cold most of the time since she's been born! (Yest the windchills were 5-15 all day, and I think the temps were to get down around single digits last night, ugh!) All of my sugary cravings have disappeared since giving birth, and I've been massively craving fruits and veggies since, so that's a good thing!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in during a quiet moment post-baby feeding. Quiet moments can be few and far between these days!!! Take care!

She's here!

2009-01-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

Lookie who decided to show up a week early. She made her big debut Saturday morning at 11:02 am., 7 lbs 6.5 ounces and 19 inches long. She's perfect. =)

Mean, Mean Wii

2009-01-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I'm still around....no baby yet. The two most common things I hear on a daily basis are "Are you Ready?" and "How much longer?" This week I have complete strangers ask me how much longer...and yet they look shocked when I say next week! I mean, if you're bold enough to ask, wouldn't you think it would be sometime really soon???? I seriously have to plan way ahead for random "stoppings" in the hall. I had a meeting this afternoon and I made sure to leave way ahead so I'd have plenty of time to get a refill for my beverage, and sure enough I was stopped 3 times and ended up about 5 minutes late! But it is nice to have so many people care, and we've gotten an absolute insane amount of stuff for babygirl. I bought about 100 thank-you cards thinking that would be more than plenty, and I'm down to about 10 left, with a few more to write for things we've received this week. It's very fun to come home and have surprise packages on the porch, and we feel very blessed for all the people in our lives who already care so much for babygirl!

Anyway, things are "progressing" (without sharing TMI), and we're on the books to be induced on the 29th! So, just over a week, max, and we should have a little sis for Pippin to lick and sit on! Very exciting stuff. And we're about as ready as we can be. Everything is washed, assembled, and I really can't think of anything big or small that we "need".

I'm still working out, last week I made it to the gym twice. That's not a great record, but between doc appts, pediatrician interviews, etc I only had two available days to go. I did the elliptical one day and the treadmill the other, and I still walk a mile in the afternoons with one of my coworkers (on the days we don't have conflicting meetings, etc.) So, I'm still staying active and feeling good. Each time I leave the gym I wonder if it's my last pre-baby workout, and man, do I look forward to some post-baby workouts and just burning some calories.

Speaking of, we got a Wii Fit back when they came out last summer. I think it's a fun toy and all, but nothing I would consider a weight loss tool. But, it's still a nice way to track your weight and the games are fun. I quit using it sometime back in August or so when it moved me into overweight and got a little "rude" about it! But I did want to get back on it so I'd have a high point to help me track my weight loss, post baby. Saturday I popped on, and here's how the Wii Fit treated me:

First, it declared me Obese. (Niice).

Then it wanted me to consider what could cause such a huge weight gain....

And they offered me some suggestions.....none of them really applied and after considering Indigestion I ended up going with "I don't know".

Then it got a little "smart" with me about not knowing.....

And then it kicked me in the face by rounding out my Mii, adding the weight gain and making me look like a Weeble-Wobble.

So yeah, pregnant people - the Wii Fit is mean and they need to add a pregnancy option to that sucker!

I didn't get to watch the inauguration today (lots o' meetings at work), but I have gotten to read various snippets of it online. The job of Prez is one I'd never want, and no matter if the person you voted for won or not, you have to support someone in that tough a job. I disagree with many things Bush did, but it's still rude to boo him on his final moments in office. We've all done stupid things, but most of us don't have them broadcast publicly, and he deserves respect for all the things he has done right, and for protecting us the last 8 years. And whether or not I agree with the new Prez he also deserves my respect, too! So anyway, here's some snippets of Warren's invocation, which hopefully a lot of people will take to heart in these crazy times. Have a great night!

Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, are united not by race or religion or blood but by our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. . . . When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect they deserve, forgive us.

May we have...civility in our attitude, even where we differ. Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.

And then there were 3.....and thankfully Jack Bauer saved them all.

2009-01-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

Pretty much 10 minutes after I wrote my last post Jennifer Garner had her baby, so that leaves 3 celebs between me and BabyGirl, and 2 of them really don't count since I don't even know who they are. So, Alison Sweeney (from Days + Biggest Loser), who is due about 11 days before me, is all that stands between us and a BABY.

One of the other major "milestones" for me has also happened now - the season premier of 24! FINALLY!!!! It seems like FOREVER since we've had the always fab Jack Bauer out saving the world. When we heard the season would start in mid-January I remember thinking "Hmmm....we'll almost have a baby then!" And here we are - the awesome season opener just ended, and we're 2.5 weeks from a kid, tops! Crazy!

I've had other, non-celeb, non-TV goals, too. One of my goals was to keep hitting the gym through the end of December, which I did plus some. I made it to the Y twice last week. It's hard with all the doc appointments and other stuff going on, so whenever I do have a normal day I try my best to get over there. I would've made it 3 days if I knew the pediatrician we were going to interview was going to have to move our appointment at the last minute. Oh well! The downtown Y buildout is almost done, and the new areas look SO awesome! Of course it all opens up the first week of February, so one of babygirl's first outings may be just to walk through it and see this place she's already been so many times. They've already gotten a ton of great new equipment over the last few weeks, including a few new machines I can't wait to try. And they opened up the expanded parts of the women's locker room, and it is SO nice!

It's funny, but now that I'm so close to D-day I am in total "game day" mode. I'm huge on visualization, in anything I set out to accomplish. When I was taking the CPA exam (back when they actually made it difficult, vs now when it's all multiple choice and you can take it ONE part at a time, pansies), I would visualize passing it every day when I was studying, and I completely hit my goals. Granted I studied a minimum of 1-2 hours every single night for about 9 months, plus a LOT more on weekends, but I think visualization was a huge part of it. And same thing with my first marathon, every training run I'd visual the finish, and how I wanted to feel, and honestly, that was the "easiest" of all my marathons because I took it so seriously. Well, I'm already there and ready for whatever labor brings. Everything after - well, that's a totally different story! But I am SO ready to get back in shape, and hopefully a January baby means I'll have plenty of time to be swimsuit ready before the pools reopen on Memorial Day!

Well, that's all I've got for now! At tomorrow's doc appointment we'll get to pick an induce date, so that's pretty exciting - a final "light" at the end of the tunnel, if she doesn't decide to arrive earlier. Other than that, we're mostly just waiting for her to show up, and doing final things around the house. We had our last shower today, so I have a ton of thank-yous I'd like to wrap up this week & get the new things put away.

Have a great week!

And then there were 4.....

2009-01-05T18:21:00.000-08:00

Celebrities, that is. It's strange the various ways you count down to baby day, but one of my main ones has been the "who's next" slideshow on a massive secret addiction site I look at each day. I really am not a celeb stalker, but there's just something about seeing them pork up the way I have that's just been somewhat addictive. Of course they have much nicer strollers and professional nursery designers, but as far as the whole process goes - for once we're all on a level playing field. For months and months there's been 20 ahead of me, then teens, and now just 4! The official baby count is down to just 26 days, but my doc will induce any day that week - so 26 is a max, not a min! Very exciting stuff!

The holidays were an absolute blur! We had SO many activities and obligations this year - of both the baby and holiday variety! It seems like we were on the go the whole time. I think I seriously baked about 16 dozen cookies/candies to give as gifts! I went through about 4 boxes of eggs, 6 or 7 boxes of butter and about 10 pounds each of flour, sugar and brown/powdered sugars. But I love doing stuff like that, so it's not a big deal!

For Christmas Brent and I brined a turkey, and it was the BEST turkey ever! It was so tender and flavorful, absolutely delicious. We had a nice relaxing day, and just enjoyed a quiet Christmas (before spending Christmas with our families later over the break). Brent got me Rock Band for Christmas, so there's been some Wii playing going on around here, and he also got me my ultimate request - a cute little popcorn machine (like what they have at the movies). I've always wanted a popcorn machine and it's so cute and matches our kitchen perfectly.

And our biggest gift this holiday is probably our new car! We got a great deal on a little SUV, and now we're styling and have room for baby! It's even got a DVD player in the back and front and rear heated seats. Brent installed the car seat yesterday, so we're good to go!

We had a great New Years and enjoyed a party at some friend's house. I highly doubted I'd even be able to stay up until midnight, but it really wasn't tough and we ended up staying up until around 1:30 or so in the morning. New Years Day was our 10th wedding anniversary! It's so hard to believe we've been married 10 years already. We had a nice, low key day and had lunch at my fave burrito joint and did some shopping for last minute must-haves for baby - like the 3 outfits I have for her for Valentines Day!

Since then it's been back to work and back to getting ready for baby! Our house is becoming pretty clean and organized, and we're getting a lot of little projects done. With all the activities going on I haven't had much time to get to the gym, and this week is going to be a tough one, too. Besides today's appt, I've got pediatrician interviews, Pippin's annual shots, and a dentist appointment this week, but I'm going to try to make it twice this week and walk on the treadmill. I am SO not looking forward to all the New Year's converts!

So, I guess that's all the news around here! Hopefully it won't be another 2 weeks before I have a chance to catch up on here! Happy New Year everyone!

T-41 Days......

2008-12-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, so I do still have this blog, huh? I really haven't forgotten to blog, it's just that life has forgotten to give me time to blog. Holidays + Jobs + this whole almost having a baby thing makes life so super busy! I think my Reader account has something like 120+ posts I haven't read, so whenever I see it I just quickly click off so as to not stress myself out!

Things are good here. We're not so much into Christmas this year since we're still trying to get our always under remodel house baby-friendly, and that's actually going pretty well when we're not attending a million Holiday dinner and parties! There was about a 10 day stretch where we literally had some event every single day, including two baby showers where we totally racked up on all sorts of things. And I'm close enough to D-Day now that I'm starting to be more tired, and when I do over-do it I pay for it in terms of massively swelling feet and ankles.

We still have a couple of upcoming dinners, and of course the holidays, but the dance card is starting to slow and point towards baby day! At my appt this week my doc said around the middle of January we could start talking induce days for the last week of January. So, it looks like we will be parents by the end of next month! Truly frightening.

I still go to the gym several days a week and walk on the treadmill. I get stared at constantly and have about a billion people stopping me to ask when I'm due so it's becoming more logistically challenging to even get my workout done! It has been nice having no training plans or goals these last few months, and just doing whatever I want. My goal all along was to run through the end of October, and keep hitting the gym to walk through the end of December, which looks like it's going to turn out just fine. I don't have any 09 goals right now, I think I'd like to do a fall half and I'm sure I'll do my usual local races. Honestly, I don't know when I'll run another 26.2 and I seriously don't care. Right now I look forward to lazy Saturday mornings with Brent cooking us some seriously good eggs and bacon, and just spending time together as a little family. I've got shelves of medals and trophies, I don't need more to prove anything to myself. Running and fitness will always be there, the stricter edges of training and what-not can wait a while.

Anyway, there's a nap calling my name. Poor Brent has a terrible cold right now. He went to the doc Friday and got loaded up on meds, which really haven't done a thing. He's been snotting and resting all weekend. Our weather has been absolutely awful lately & basically half the city is sick. It rains practically every day for about the last 3 weeks, and the temps literally swing back and forth 50 degrees on a 24 hour basis! Friday - rain and 60's, then yesterday cloudy and cold in the 40's and today it's in the low 30's and dropping down to 13. It's arctic out there and of course we don't have any snow, if it's going to be this cold we deserve some pretty snow! I was sick last Saturday with a stomach bug, so we haven't had the best of weekends lately. Brent's snoring away next to me on the couch, and Pippin is too, so I think it's my turn to get in on the action! We were out late to a party last night so we could all use some extra sleep today, and I have a dessert I need to make later for a dinner tomorrow. I'm thinking something fruity and semi-healthy, following all the heavy foods of late (and coming up this week!)

Have a wonderful week and a very Merry Christmas!

6 Things that make me Happy, with 6 Weekends to Go...

2008-12-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

I was really, really intending to blog here tonight but decided I should def read through some of you guys' posts in my Google Reader first. I mean, it's only fair for me to read what you guys are doing before I bore everyone with my little world, right? Ironically the first post I read I was tagged in, and since all bloggers I've met in the real world come first, I figured I should post my reply right away! And since my title was going to be "6 more weekends" anyway.....it couldn't be more fitting!

Six things that make me happy.....that's so hard to narrow down! Here's just the first 6 that pop into mind....

1) Baking at the Holidays. Dear God, I just love to bake, and the convection ovens we put into our kitchen last year, along with my Beloved Kitchen Aid just make baking one of the things that I love most this time of year. So far I'm about 4 batches into my Holiday Bake-anaza. There's something so stress relieving about dough and recipes and chopping little Snickers into tiny bits and then taking a big plate of assorted goodies with you everywhere you go. People just love homemade stuff, and I sort feel like I'm stealing from Paula Deen and Racheal Ray when I say how much I just love to make people happy with food. But it's true, I love to cook a feast and throw a party and we've had so much going on this year that we have hardly had a chance to do that. Actually, I'm already planning our biggest holiday party EVER for next December. It's just going to be huge and I can hardly wait until December 09.

2) Pippin. He just makes me happy. There's no love like the unconditional love of your dog, and no offense but Pippin has to be one of the cutest dogs ever. He is full of personality and just an absolute ham. He's there every time you feel bad and just want to cuddle in bed, every day you come home sad, and any time you just need a friend. He's just about the purest love in the world. I'm so over all the people who tell us he's just going to be "tossed aside" when the baby comes and that we "don't get it". Maybe we don't, but I can't imagine him ever being an afterthought in this house, and while he will have to share his time I view the change much the same as parents with multiple children - there's room to love everyone in this house.

3) Traveling. That should sort of come as a no-brainer if you've known us for any amount of time. I think the world is fascinating and there's just SO much to see. I don't understand how some people can go to the same place over and over again, when even just within this country there's some much to see and experience. If we hadn't traveled I wouldn't know there are states with no sales tax, places you're not allowed to pump your own gas, I would've never met a lot of you!, and I would've never seen real mountain goats and prairie dogs in their natural habitat.

4) Cheese. I just love it. In every form, every prep, it's just good. Probably a total heart killer, but it's just GOOD. I know someone who will only eat white cheese, and I think that's insane. I hardly can't even be her friend I find it so ludicrous. Shredded, melted, curds, in a ball or log, I like it. The holidays are some of my fave times because there's cheese sets in every retailer.

5) Gardening. I think Gardening is my Summer equivalent of Baking. There's something so rewarding about taking something from a seed, raising it up and then harvesting a veggie. We don't even eat half the things we grow, so half the fun is giving it away here as well. It's just exciting to see those first tomato blooms, then the tiny little green bugger, followed by a ripe fruit! It becomes an all out passionate war for me - of fighting droughts and 100+ temps, mean squirrels, and wretched worms all out to get you. I think the challenge makes the reward that much sweeter.

6) Brent and BabyGirl. I sort of got carried away so I guess these two will have to share a spot. Could I have a better husband? I don't think so. He's just so sweet to surprise me when I'm down, or just think of something nice to do for me. Last Friday he surprised me with a big body pillow to help me sleep better at night. I didn't ask for it or suggest it, he just knew it was something I needed. I can't believe in 3 weeks we'll have been married for 10 years!! It seems like forever, but it sort of seems like yesterday, too. I can't imagine my life being any better. And BabyGirl (who does have a name.....promise). This little person kicks the fire out of me, keeps me up all night, kept my head in the toilet for a few months, but she brings so much joy already. Right now she's pretty much all up in my ribcage and it's not so easy to breathe, but it just reminds me she's here. I'm pretty sure the day she makes her grand entrance will be one of the happiest days of our lives.

So yeah, I could go on and on and add things like movies with Kate Hudson in them, ice cream, Pandora radio, gourmet bathroom soaps and so on, but the game was to name 6.

Have a great night!!!!!

8 more weekends to go...

2008-11-30T17:35:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Ours is never relaxing, and is full of visiting family and heading from one house to the next to visit relatives. We ended up coming back last night instead of today just to get a little relaxing in, and I think that was a very smart decision! (Of course we didn't actually relax this afternoon - I cleaned all afternoon downstairs while Brent worked upstairs all afternoon! But, we were very productive!)

We had nice Thanksgivings with the family. We "revealed" the baby's name to our families via making them guess. We printed out all the letters to her first and middle name and made them figure out. She doesn't have a lot of letters to her name, so it wasn't an easy task! Brent's brother was the big winner at his house, and I think my mom was the winner at mine. There was also much talk of the "baby in Aunt Rachel's tummy". Pretty much every time we came and went my niece wanted to know if we could go to the hospital so I could have my baby. And of course Pippin was always a big hit everywhere. Personally, I found his shining moment to be his impromptu roll in unidentified poop about two minutes before we had the car loaded to come home Saturday night. Ugh. So he got a quick and impromptu bath.

And now tomorrow starts December! It's hard to believe that it's already the holiday season. I can't believe it's already time to start the assembly line of Christmas cards and holiday baking! The next few weeks have a ton of activities for us - between holiday parties & open houses, baby showers, another baby prep class, & doctor's appointments there's hardly a spare day at all! And starting tomorrow when people ask the billion dollar question of "how much longer" the answer will be "next month!" Yikes! And right now Brent's putting together yet another piece of "baby equipment" - our new glider! All exciting stuff.

I still work out most days at the gym, I usually make it about 3-4 days a week with all the other stuff going on. There's LOADS of stares, and like most places I go it's hard to get in and out without the 20 questions people like to play with the pregnant - "when are you due", "what are you having", "what's the name", "how are you feeling", and "what have you been craving". I end up walking about 3 miles a day now, not the 5.5 I used to get, but not so shabby for a 31-week preggo.

Alrighty, that's the update from here. Here's a couple of pics from our holiday:

Niece #2 spent much time staring at my stomach - and then decided to take her baby doll and stuff it up her shirt to be like me. (Although she spent a lot of the weekend explaining that everyone else just had food in their stomach but I had a baby.)

Here's the "new mom" with her lovely baby:

Another of the top questions we're asked these day is "how is Pippin with kids", the answer is not half bad. He's very patient and pretty much lets them do whatever - take his toys, tug on him, etc. He gets the occasional push/jump in on them, but 98% of the time he's actually pretty gentle.

But when he sees us start packing up - there's no way he's going to be left behind!

Happy Holidays!

9 More Weekends to Go!

2008-11-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

So, the weekend is practically over, ALREADY! I seriously feel like we didn't even have a weekend with all the birthing classes we had this weekend! We did the weekend "marathon" course, where you go from 9-3 Saturday and 1-5 Sunday. It was a ton of info crammed into a weekend, but well worthwhile. Our class was pretty large, and there were some good questions asked. We learned all about child birth (natural, medicated and c-section), as well as recovery, newborn care, a tour of the hospital and everything we'll need to know when it's our time. We even ended up sitting next to a couple who actually only lives about 3 or 4 blocks away! Of course my fave part of the class was the "relaxation" part where we got nice massages from our "support person".

I think one of the main things I took away from this weekend is how glad I am not to be in horrible shape. There were two seriously obese girls in there - who were basically 100% miserable. I'm talking the type of obese where one of them was constantly breathing through her mouth and was ALWAYS out of breath - walking across the room for water, in the everlong bathroom line, and she couldn't even get in the "push" position or the support thing with her partner. Crazy. And she was first in line for the fried chicken tenders one of our classmates brought in for all of us today (he owns the local chicken place). And I saw a big ole Coke in her bag. Honestly, it just seems like if you're in that bad a shape a)how are you going to survive labor and b) wouldn't you want to make some changes once you found out you were pregnant?

Anyway, it was quite the weekend and we'll be back tomorrow for our next doctor's appointment! We are really becoming hospital regs.

And can I just say it is SO good to see Kiefer back as Jack Bauer on 24!!!!!!

Updates

2008-11-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Everything's good here, still preggo and as big as a house. Or at least big enough that I get stared at at the gym and gawked at and questioned pretty much everywhere I go. And yup, I'm still hitting the gym. I go about 3 days a week and walk 2 miles, plus the mile I walk each afternoon with a coworker. I figure 3 miles a day of exercise pretty good for someone just 10 weeks away from her due date!

I feel pretty good, I can't complain. My only "issue" is an achy back by the end of the day, but Brent's always willing to rub it and if that's my only complaint I don't consider it much of one compared to what a lot of people have! We've gotten a lot done on the nursery (pics on private blog) and the whole house is really starting to come along, majorly due to Brent working around the clock on it!

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say here, most of what I have going on belongs on my more "private place" so that's where I hang out these days for the most part, and over on some other sites where most of us are friends anyway!

But, I did have to share a pic of one thing we got babygirl last weekend:
Baby's first Cowboy Boot(ies)! Every Nashville baby needs a pair! =)

Happy almost weekend!

Chili Time!

2008-11-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I can't believe the weekend is already escaping us! It's been an insanely fast and busy one around here, and we've hardly gotten anything knocked off our to-do list.

We had a ton of errands to run Friday night, one of them being getting me some winter maternity clothes (aka sweaters). I'd been hoping for loads of global warming (temporary, of course) but with just under 12 weeks to go, there's no way I could escape without buying a few sweaters. I've been lucky getting a lot of markdowns on summer stuff, and we did go to the Motherhood outlet so I was able to get a couple of things on discount. I think you should get a clothing shower when you tell people you're pregnant! We also had to hit up the Gymboree outlet while we were there, too! We got a great deal on a little winter coat for BabyGirl, so that was a huge win-win.

Saturday we needed to get some replenishment prints for the art show Brent's currently in (he sold nine things last weekend!!), and long story short we were there a long time because the files crashed the computer. I got some shopping done at Target and other NashvilleWest places, but by the time we got the prints, had some lunch, went to the gallery to change up his wall, etc it was about 3 before we got home to get started on our weekend housework! Brent got some drywall and other stuff done before we went across the street for our elementary school's annual fundraiser. This year they had a chili supper. And it was GREAT! Last year was spaghetti, and it was also the weekend we built our awesome new backyard fence! We wolfed down our chili, got dressed back up and headed over to the gallery for the Artrageous event.

I've never seen Artrageous before, and it was quite the spectacle. It's a fundraiser for a charity, and for some $$$ people get to take buses and get liquored up all over town while looking at art. Every year has a theme, and this year was the '30s, so people were dressed in mobster attire, flapper dresses, etc. There were tons of limos (I guess for larger donors), party buses, and other buses outside transporting people in and out all night. I'm not sure what Brent's sales were, but it really wasn't a big art buying crowd - they were really more there to drink and drink and drink, and no one wanted to buy anything they'd have to take around with them. But he did talk to several people who liked his stuff, hand out cards, etc. And Nicole and Tom came to the show, so it was nice to see them, too!

We had really wanted to go and take some fall pictures of us this weekend, the leaves are just at their peak and I love fall pics. The plan had been to go to the park yesterday, but the gallery stuff took forever and there just wasn't time, so we decided we'd go today. By next weekend it might be too late, or if there's a ton of rain the trees could be bare. So yeah, it's REALLY cold today. A cold front came through Friday, but the cold air really didn't hit until today. Yesterday's high was prob upper 50's/low 60's, while today's high - in the mid 40's! And really overcast. I DID find the decaf coffee pot at church this am, so that was a huge win! Our class just has regular, but there's this whole massive coffee area with about 6 different types of regular and flavored coffees, as well as juice and milk for the kiddos! Huge score! That's the type of thing I love to find when we end up sitting somewhere different and take a new path to the bathroom where I have to wait in line forever for a stall, just me and the old ladies! (One thing though - most places I go if there's a bathroom line people usher me ahead of them - the old church ladies ooh and aahhh about me but NEVER off to let me skip! =) ).

Anyways, we decided to go ahead and do some pics, just in case next weekend turned out to be too late. They turned out great! It's really hard since our photographer is Brent, so we never know if we're both smiling the same way, etc. I'm going to put them together in a slideshow, but the program I have on the lappy to shrink my files to upload size isn't working, so here's one or two for now. (UPDATED: My files were too big, so I'll have to have Brent help me with the resize program, sorry!)

Have a great week!

What's up???

2008-11-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Is anyone else having a tough time with this time change?? Goodness, I can't stand it being so dark when I leave work! I had my 7 month doc appt Monday, so I left work early. Tuesday I stayed late to work on some of the many things I'm totally slammed on, and I couldn't believe it was pitch black at 5! (I'm not anywhere near a window.) I think it really affects my moods, I basically won't see the sun except for the weekends!

Anyway, Brent and I went and did our civic duty yesterday morning. We got to our precinct at 6:30 and stood outside in the chilly air until they opened at 7. We were about the 15th people in line, so we were outta there by 7:15. Of course my alphabet lady yelled at me for signing my middle name on the line - even though she told me to SIGN THE LINE. Apparently some of my ID methods have my middle name and some don't, and it was a huge issue for her. Whatevs. We didn't even get to take any advantage of all the election day food freebies! I had hoped for a chance to walk down to Starbucks, but I was slammed all day, and then Brent's car battery died on him at work. So, he ended up getting home even later after getting jumped by a coworker, then we had to jump him again after dinner so he could go buy a new battery. I was hoping we could go to Ben & Jerry's for evening free ice cream, but that was no dice too thanks to the battery! BUT, once it was all resolved Brent did stop at Ugly Mugs on his way home and get some lovely decaf. Actually, it was such a slow and sleepy night in the 'hood with everyone watching the elections they didn't even have any decaf made so they did a decaf Cafe Americana for us at the same price. Sweet! (I SO missed my Ugly Mugs fix while we were in California! I've become some sort of coffee purist to their Drews Brews brand that everything we had in Cali was like brown water.)

Hmm.....did I even have a point in posting today? It's been such a busy week at work and with other things going on. Tomorrow I get to spend most of the day out "shopping" with coworkers, checking out our competition and getting some ideas to help our business be more efficient, so that should be fun! It's always nice to spend a day outside the office and we've had a lot of good, fresh new ideas lately. If this crap economy will just turn around I think we'll be in great financial shape as a company. I know we won't get bonuses this year, but hopefully we can blow some budgets out next year.

Brent did great at his art show last weekend. We know he sold at least 5 pieces, and he's the only one who sold anything from the show. So, yay! I've got to go and check what he still has there before this weekend - it's another big Sat night in the art world here with a lot of traffic coming through the gallery. Hopefully we can also take some pics at the park this weekend while the leaves are at their peak. And maybe finish up the work in the nursery so we can start putting together the crib and arranging the room. Only 12 1/2 more weeks to go!

OH, and does anyone have any experience with ClearWire? I'd like a cheaper alternative to Comcast. I'm sick to death of paying $114 a month for internet + basic cable (seriously, we don't have any movie channels or even the digital package. Just BASIC cable). I'm all about eliminating the waste from our budget, and considering we watch maybe 1 hour of TV a day, if that, our cable bill is probably first in line. The review I've read online of ClearWire make them sound horrible, so they don't sound like a good option, but if anyone has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Have a great night!

Bored?

2008-11-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

Bored tonight? Come out to the SNAP's annual pushpin show! It's photography! It's cheap! It's cash and carry! Take home some of Brent's great stuff! We'll be there around 8:ish. Press release below:

Group presents annual Pushpin/Clothespin Show

The Society of Nashville Artistic Photographers (SNAP) presents the fourth annual Pushpin/Clothespin Show at the Plowhaus Gallery, located on the second floor of the Tennessee Art League building at 808 Broadway.

This gallery show will feature the work of 21 SNAP members who range from commercial and exhibition photographers to high-end amateurs.

The show will exhibit unframed pieces that are available for purchase. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1. The exhibit will be open the following two Saturdays, Nov. 8 and 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Exhibitors include Eric Denton, Stefan Engstrom, Denny Adcock, Emily Naff, Nick Dantona, Shelly Santana, Kay Ramming, Jerry Atnip, Rebekah Pope, Barry Noland, Zak Willis, Wendy Whittemore, John Brassil, Jim Bruner, Jerry Park, Laura Carpenter, Brent Spears, Martha Smith, Erika Johnson, Pierre Vreyen and Al Levenson. Images range from traditional photo prints to archival inkjet prints to platinum/palladium prints.

My Dixie Chicken

2008-10-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

If you'll be my Dixie chicken
I'll be your Tennessee lamb
And we can walk together
Down in Dixie land

There's really a LOT you can say about Halloween at our house, and one thing is for sure - this ain't your momma's suburbs. This was a weird Halloween for us - Halloween is my fave holiday. Seriously, I like it more than Christmas. It's just fun - low pressure, no gifts, lots of creativity - and anything that semi-revolves around chocolate is awesome. Normally we decorate a ton - the spiderwebs, lights, parties, etc. This year - nothing. Between not being able to make it to the attic since stairs are currently being built, to everything in our attic still being totally covered in shingle dust, to being gone for a week, and honestly being more focused on building a nursery than spending hours stretching cobwebs - it just didn't happen. With the "economy" as such I even cut back on my candy buy -only 10 bags this year!

BUT, we do love to dress up and give out what we have, so I made do with an old witches costume from prior years. The corset wouldn't corset all the way, but it's not too bad for an almost 7 months preggers costume!

And this year, we subjected Pippin to being a chicken.

A coworker suggested Brent (or I) be KFC Kernal Sanders, which I thought was SO clever! But, Brent said he would just wear the chef outfit since he didn't have a white suit and would only be Mr KFC if he could do it right. This is our 14th Halloween together (we are so old!!!) and he has seriously worn this mask EVERY year!! He loves it! He quit wearing it when the kids really started coming in, it scares a lot of them.

Pippin had his picture taken by at least 4 people, had one woman say "no one is ever going to believe this", a few "I ain't never seen a dog dressed like a chicken", and one "I thought that was a real chicken." All the kids love Pippin, and a few get so distracted they don't even get candy, which is great because we always run out. I got through about 260 kids before I ran out this year around 5 minutes after 8. It's nuts. And I still hear a ton of kids going by about a half hour later. I get seriously irritated at how rude some of them are - a few came back more than once, and when I called him out on it he said "no i didn't". Uh, I can remember an orange convict outfit and the distinctive marks on your face from about 5 minutes ago. We also had a ton of parents trick or treating. I mean, REALLY, that is so awful. So although I always feel bad when we run out, I blame these parents for taking candy from children. I spend at least $50 a year on candy, and that's all I can really handle. Hopefully another hour and it'll quiet down - there's a ton of screaming outside right now, and while we were out there was one loose dog running and chasing people (creating massive panic) and then one fight between high schoolers where they started throwing candy (nice how they appreciate it) and cursing at each other while chasing each other down our street. I was really glad they didn't come to our house.

Brrrr.......

2008-10-28T19:40:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't had a chance to get our vacay slideshow up here, it's been one of those crazy busy weeks back in the schedule. I still have to get the last 2 days of pics off my camera, including pics of the delish waffle I had at the Coronado resort we stayed at. Seriously, BEST.WAFFLE.EVER. Maybe later this weekend I can get pics of our 41st state conquered together up! Only 9 more states to go - Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Next year we're aiming to take the baby to WV and VA, since that would be a pretty easy drive from here.

It is COLD here! Tonight is our first freeze warning. I think our high was 50-something today, a far cry from the mid-80s we had in SanD last week! Brent helped me dig the rest of my sweet potatoes last weekend, and I picked any peppers I had of good size. My garden is still doing SO well (this has been my best garden ever!), and it's such a shame if this freeze kills my remaining plants! I've got a lot of green tomatoes still, and my pepper plants are going through a big boom right now.

Anyway, we've got a lot going on this week. Our nursery furniture came in WAY early (it was due in mid-Dec), so our fams are coming up this weekend with a trailer to help us go and get it, and also take back some of the large tools we've borrowed on the stairs project. Our curtain fabric also came in, so my mom will be taking that back and bringing us the living room curtains she made for us. I can't wait to see them!!! They've been done since July but we've held off on getting them since we've had SO much drywall dust inside. With our new entertainment console here now, once we have the curtains our living room furniture ensemble will finally be complete. Yay!

Brent's been SUPER busy this week working on the mural in the baby's room, installing the landings on the stairs, and installing door trim for the new doorways so we can send back some of these tools and actually have a place for the crib. AND, he's in an art show that starts Sat night, so getting all his pieces together has been thrown in there, too! Luckily I've been able to help with a lot of that, but it's one more thing on the To Do list, all colliding at once. AND, we're going to see Avenue Q here at TPAC Thursday night!!! OH, and there was that little "Monday Night Football" thing yesterday where our Titans went 7-0 and showed Peyton Manning what a little girl he is. So, there's been a thing or two going on here.

It was nice to be back at the gym yesterday. People are REALLY starting to stare at me and ask questions about when I'm due. No baggy T-shirt in the world can hide this basketball belly (which is HUGE tonight). We walked a ton on vacation, prob at least 3 miles every day. I swear the San Diego Zoo is ALL uphill, we must've walked 5-6 miles that day, between walking to and from the bus stop and literally looking at every animal in the zoo. Same for SeaWorld, both days we were walking and exploring from when the park opened at 9-10 until they close at 5. I didn't have any issues, Saturday was the only day I felt a little slow. Between our early flight, walking around a few hours with our heavy backpacks until our rooms were ready, and then more exploring that night I was getting a bit tired.

This morning, literally 5 minutes before my alarm went off, I woke up with a pregnancy leg cramp. This is only the 2nd one I've had, I think the other one was back in August and my leg was literally sore for about 4 days. They're so much worse than regular charlie horses (for me). With a reg leg cramp I can stretch it out with no lingering soreness, but the soreness just lingers on pregnancy ones (for me). Walking helps some, but it's really hard to stretch out. I didn't get a chance to go to the gym or for my afternoon walk, hopefully tomorrow I can and maybe that will help some of the soreness.

Since I haven't had a chance to post vacay pics, here's a couple of Anne and I - proving that we do both exist and are not the same person!

Have a great night!

We're back!

2008-10-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

We're back from our babymoon! We had a great time in San Diego. We left last Saturday morning and got home around 10 last night. We did all the main touristy stuff - the Zoo, Sea World, etc and then spent the last few days lounging around Coronado in the most comfortable pool chairs ever. (And we even spent a day with Anne! )It was in the mid/upper 80's and we have a better tan than we had all summer. Of course no one will ever see it since it's in the 50's and chilly here - and we might get our first frost this upcoming week!

More pics and vacation details to come, it's time to snuggle with a very, very exhausted Pippin. I think he had a full week of playing (and being royally spoiled) at Camp Bow Wow and the poor thing is just absolutely dead to the world today.

Politics

2008-10-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

Anyone else totally sick of this election? I pretty much thought I knew who I was going to vote for, and now I'm back in the land of undecided. And if I heard "Joe Plumber" one more time tonight I wanted to vomit. I really just can't support McCain and his desire to write down people's mortgages and devalue our houses. How is that ok? I've worked hard for a house I can afford, changes I can afford, and a lifestyle within my means, shouldn't everyone??? If you write down my neighbors debts I'd like some of that myself! And his healthcare plan - honestly I'm not all that familiar with it - but I'm pretty certain my medical expenses this year and next would far exceed his allocations. I'm really thinking about writing in Kiefer Sutherland. Any other 24 fans with me on that one??? Brent will probably write me in, like he does for every election.

Just a few more days and we'll be in California!!!! It's going to be nice and relaxing, everything a vacay should be! Sorry no time for more blogging, there's a lot of nursery painting, vacay prep and other stuff going on around here. My Reader account is up to over 80 posts, yikes!!!

Ok, time to test out the cookies I made for Boss's day tomorrow - Heath Peanut Butter cookies, yum!

Oktoberfest 5K Race Report: Bumpy, Lumpy & Proud

2008-10-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This post is very long, at times totally off topic, and full of pictures. (And took all day, off and on, to write!)

Hey guys! I hope you've all had a great weekend. I can't say that I have many complaints. I actually started my weekend a little early. I think all the stress of everything - the world, the house, sick people everywhere around me, trouble sleeping, etc - totally caved in on me Thursday leaving me pretty much exhausted. Sometimes I sleep pretty good, others not so much, and last week I was just feeling utterly exhausted and like I could succumb to all the illness around me at work. (On a side note, why do sick people refuse to stay home??? It's gross and so rude to everyone around - esp those of us who can't take a slew of medicines to clear things up.) So Brent pretty much ordered me to stay home Friday and get some rest, and I feel SO much better. I slept until close to 9 am, and did a lot of couch napping all day. My two "approved" activities were mopping the kitchen floor and cleaning the bathroom, and those were pretty much the only things I did that took me away from a day of watching TLC and decompressing.

Friday night when Brent got home we headed out to do a little car shopping. On the way to the dealership we saw the Oktoberfest packet pick-up booth, so we went ahead and swung in to sign up for the race. Basically, the churches and historical society who sponsor this festival every year got into an argument over the money side of it, so the festival split and the new Germantown Street Festival side kept the race. So, the course was all new, start and finish in new places, new logo, new everything! I asked if there was an Athena division, and of course the one race I would qualify there wasn't! I got my shirt, my Christie Cookie, and my bib and we walked around Germantown looking for a dinner spot.

One great thing about pregnant running is not caring what you fuel up on the night before! It's all about taking it easy, so anything works. We ended up trying out Monell's. Monell's is the classic "Southern cooking" type place. It's family style, and while we knew you sat at the table with people you didn't know and shared big bowls of food, we always thought you ordered the meat you wanted. However, all the meats they're serving that day are brought to everyone as well. Truly this is the type of place that helps TN stay extremely high in the overweight statistics of our nation. Our table was completely full - prob about 12 or so people. One group of 5, the two of us, a group of 3 and another group of 2. We were completely stuck in the back corner of the room - a wall behind us, and I was next to the head of the table - an EXTREMELY large guy who ate there often. On the other side of him - one of the biggest people I've ever seen - also a huge fan of the place. I was really glad my nauseated days are long gone - there's NO way I would've been able to get out without making them move. And let's just say that would not happen "I'm about to be sick" quickly. First we passed around salads - cole slaw, pea salad and cucumbers and onions. It was all pretty good, their cole slaw was excellent. Then came the sides - mashed potatoes, collard greens, corn casserole, & green beans. I don't like greens, and theirs weren't my thing either. I also wasn't a fan of the green beans - I don't personally like the Southern way of cooking them in ham/bacon, and I'm pretty sure theirs were. Then came the meats - vegetarian lasagna, fried catfish and fried chicken. I skipped the lasagna, the fish was great but the pieces were small and their hushpuppies were a little weird, and the fried chicken was just ok. Dessert was banana pudding, and of course there was sweet tea (but naturally I'm stuck with water everywhere since I'm choosing to try to avoid caffeine 99.9% of the time.) The banana pudding was excellent and I could've eaten the whole bowl.

So yeah, the whole family style thing can be a little odd. The huge guy next to me was NOT a passer. I'd hand him something and he would just set it down. We were the halfway point of the table and so the entire other side would just sort of look at him, so I'd end up handing it straight across the huge table. He told me he wasn't interested in "the healthy stuff" for the first salad course - but that doesn't mean you shouldn't pass it on! It was nuts. He was there with his family - a couple of brothers and his parents, who will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this winter. His mom spent the WHOLE time telling him he needs to find a wife, that it's not good to be alone, etc etc. Poor guy probably hears it ALL the time, but why rush into the wrong marriage! Anyway, we were stuck there a long time - the people on Brent's right had us blocked in because they were slow eaters, and then we were blocked on the other side because the people were so large we couldn't get by. Monell's was pretty good - but it was $16 a person which just wasn't worth it. We don't eat THAT much.

From there we finally made it over to the car dealership, test drove the car we liked, then went inside to talk "bizness". I HATE buying cars. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I think cars are sort of pointless, and I would never spend a lot on one. We sat around forever while they appraised our trade-in. We've got a 2000 Jeep Wrangler, with a whopping 50K miles on it - I seriously hit 50K in July and we've had it for 7 years, and we bought it used! Driving 5-6 miles a day does not wear a car out, and it's in perfect shape with a lot of upgrades and new brakes, tires and radiator. So when they brought us back the paperwork and offered us $5,000 for it - we hit the ceiling. We had already told them we owe nothing on the car, planned to pay cash for the new car, and basically couldn't have been an easier sale in a time where dealerships are supposed to be struggling. Anyway, we were so beyond offended we didn't even want to play the game with them, of course they wouldn't just give us our keys back. Brent went behind the counter to get them himself, they didn't tell us where they had moved our car and let us wander around the lot for several minutes before they told us where to find our car - which is rude on every level but especially when you're dealing with a pregnant lady at 9pm, so we won't be back to Crest Honda for anything, ever. It was beyond frustrating. (And also about $3K below the standard Kelly trade in value for our car.)

Needless to say we came home miffed and irritated, it was already close to 10, and I was starting to think getting up early for a race might not be my smartest move. My goal all along has been to keep my fitness up for this particular race. I slept horribly that night, worried about the race and irritated about the whole car thing.

Race morning started early, I had toast with PB on it and grabbed some clothes. I haven't bought any maternity running stuff, I mostly just work out every day in elastic shorts and Brent's old race shirts. It's not pretty, but buying a whole new professional wardrobe for myself as well as clothes for a baby isn't cheap, and all the maternity stuff I've seen is really pricey. I found a white Tshirt that would work, and then my ugly gym shorts. They're not flattering but neither is my rear end these days, and especially my thighs, so I try to wear longer stuff.

Brent dropped me off near the start and I grabbed my chip and stood around waiting for him to find me. I didn't see anyone I knew - there were several other large races that day, so I guess a lot of the more popular runners went there. The corporate team from my former employer wasn't even there, which was odd. I headed to the back of the pack to line up, and ended up getting in line with the running stroller crew. I figured that was the best place for me to avoid mobs, but by the time the gun went off the crowd was an absolute chaotic mess, as far back as I lined up there were walkers in front, runners behind, just a mess of people not understanding how to line up. They were all courteous though, so it was fine, just a slow, messy start.

Brent waited a little past the start to get my pic, then jumped in with me, massive camera in tow. His plan was to stick with me the whole way, which was just fine by me. I know he was staying with me to make sure I was ok, that it really had nothing to do with taking hundreds of pictures of me, but I'm cool with that. That's what sweet, concerned husbands do. There were tons of police everywhere guarding the intersections, so I know if I had needed medical attention I would've been taken care of quickly.

My goal all along was just to take it easy, keep it conversational, and maybe end up around 45 minutes. That was a goal that made me cringe, but 20 pounds of baby really slows you down. (Last year I ran it in 25something, the year before in 24:06.) Girlie and I have had our moments - she went through her "sitting on my bladder phase". We've also been through the "how do I run with porn star boobs" phase (answer:double the boobs, double the quantity of sports bras), and now we're in a happy place together. I have some shin pain, but I think that's a combo of def needing a new pair of shoes plus the extra weight. It's very similar to the pain I get when it's time for new shoes.

So we started slow, I'd walk any hills, and I just kept it easy. It felt nice to pick people off, slowly. Pregnant running is weird: people stare but won't say anything. I think people here still find it odd that I work out. I get comments about it at work, a few at the gym, but generally people just avoid me. The only people that talked to me before the race were the running stroller crowd. My miles ticked off evenly at around 13:30-13:40 each, which I was very happy with. One police officer kidded with Brent and said "Shame on you, making a pregnant woman run!" and I said "I'm the one making HIM run!", but generally I was just stared at, then ignored.

The new course goes around the Farmer's Market, instead of running through it, which was sort of disappointing. That was always my favorite part of this course and of any race in Nashville. Running through a building of shocked and confused produce shoppers was always fun. The race ended similarly to the former course, we ran up the hill past the Market, a turn and the new finish was even closer than the old - no big finishing hill! When I rounded that last hill I was so proud of myself, I was NOWHERE near last and I had done it - with no pain, discomfort and not much sweat. Brent sprinted ahead to get my finishing pic, final chip time of 42:05 - several minutes ahead of my goal. I had my chip cut off, then told the old guy who ALWAYS volunteers how good it was to see him, and (like always, no matter how I did) he said "Great time for you today - Oh WAIT! Great time for you AND baby! Good for you!". I was 71 out of 82 in my division, I was 752 overall and they had said there were over 1,000 people signed up. We stood and watched some others finish before looking for some water. We watched the awards, and of course I secretly hoped all other female 30-34 year olds had the flu, and then headed over to the festival.

First stop - the church bake sale. I bought some chocolate chip cookies that were wonderfully melty in the hot sun (it was something like 85 degrees yesterday. Normally Oktoberfest is my first long sleeve race, or it's at least a little chilly - not a chance this year!). We shopped the booths, then went back to the Mad Platter BierGarten where we feasted on polish sausage (the best!!!) and bratwurst. I heart polish sausage, big time. We walked around a little more and then got a funnel cake to share while we watched a polka band (the same band that performs at the Gerst Haus.) Good times! Baby girl enjoyed the beats and was kicking away.

Enjoying bake sale goodies:

Monkies make everything more fun:

Funnel cakes make life great:

German music and dancing makes babies kick:

On our way back to the car we went through the history festival at BiCentennial Mall. We listened to Abe Lincoln talk for a little while before heading back to the car.

Abe talking to the crowds - I never knew he had a Southern accent!

Capital Mall: Turned into (Revolutionary) Tent City

All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with my "race". I met my goals, maybe inspired a girl or two to keep her fitness up one day when she's having a baby, and maybe pictures of us running "together" will inspire my own baby girl one day. It wasn't my normal 24 or 25 minute race, but it was special in its own way. I don't know if I'll do any more races before my due date. The two I wanted to do for sure were the 5K for Fatherhood I did back in June, and this one. I'm really glad I was able to do both of them, the first at 10 weeks pregnant and this one at 24 weeks pregnant. I'd like to do the 5K before the Christmas parade, but as it's 6 weeks before my due date I'm not sure how much I'll be running then!

Have a great week!

Rocking it, German Style!

2008-10-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

I am so happy I got to finish the Oktoberfest 5K today! My goal all along has been to stay in good enough shape to run this race, and goal achieved! It wasn't pretty, it wasn't fast, and it was all in cotton! (And I wasn't last! And I even beat my personal goal by about 4 minutes.)

Here's one pic with a full race report to come!

Babblings

2008-10-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

Just an hour until Nashville hits the big screen with the national debate! Very exciting! I think companies should've closed down so residents could go and enjoy the day, but oh well! I have a class on Tuesdays at lunch, otherwise I probably would have gone over there to see all the hub-bub and activity. On my way to work this morning I passed two top hotels where I'm pretty sure McCain and some of the other big dogs were staying, based on the suits, security and nice escort cars outside. (Obama didn't arrive until today.) Other than helping navigate a coworker around some of the blocked off roads and find an alternate route, the debate hasn't cramped my style any, and it's very exciting for the city. There are several viewing parties around town, but we're just watching from here. It's kind of a gross, rainy night so we ordered in Chinese delivery and I already have my Bears sweatpants on. Hopefully Tom Brokaw will choose my question that I submitted online, of course there's no telling how many questions were submitted.

In a slight rewind, Brent took me to Eastland Cafe for my birthday. Normally we celebrate at Margots, but this time he surprised me with EC. It was very good! It was a beautiful night, we sat outside at a nice table and enjoyed watching all the people stroll by. We started out with the fried calamari, which was pretty good. We had the most amazing calamari ever in Wisconsin, and this one just wasn't quite as good. Then I had the Idaho trout in sort of a creole with some green beans, corn, a fingerling potatoes on the plate. WOW, it was amazing! Brent ordered the vegetarian dish of eggplant cannelloni, and then we ordered green mac n cheese and 4 cheddar mashed potatoes. So good!!!! Really, our bill wasn't bad at all. Since we had cake at home we didn't get dessert, so we got out of there at a pretty reasonable cost.

Workouts last week weren't the best. Between class, my b-day lunch and having some new furniture delivered Friday I only made it to the gym twice. I do still also walk a mile every afternoon with a coworker, so on gym days I get in about 3.5 miles and on off days I get in a mile. It's at least something. This week I can really, really feel my ligaments stretching and I haven't been my most comfortable. From the massive quantity of kicking going on inside me I can tell someone is REALLY trying to stretch me out, from the inside!

Ok, back to working on our San Diego trip which is (thankfully!) coming up soon. We SO need a vacation. I've been printing bus maps and schedules tonight since we prob won't get a car. Their transit sight is great - type in your starting address and destination and it tells you exactly how to get there!

Have a great night!

We're not #1 in spelling either.....

2008-10-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to say thanks for all the birthday wishes! I had a GREAT birthday that I'll post more about later. The Cliff Notes version is: gourmet cupcakes at work, wonderful nice dinner out with Brent, as well as roses and gifties, plus a prenatal massage last weekend (heaven!) and a delicious cake. Could I ask for more???? I'll post more pics of my b-day later, including the shirt B had made for me that says "Baby Loves Cake" (and she does!). We've been painting the nursery this afternoon and I'm a bit tired and planning to prop up and read a magazine or something.

Unless you've been under a rock, then you know the next presidential debate is here in our fine city Tuesday night. Every newscast is broadcasting from there, and there's major excitement about the being one of the few cities selected for just a big event! (And I submitted a question since it's a town hall style debate - I hope it gets picked!!! I wish I would be picked to attend the debate, but that's not even an option for locals.) SO, all this hub-bub and massive attention to detail, unless you're our local highway maintenance crew. We made 2 trips down I-65 yesterday, once in the am for my massage and once in the pm for a wedding. Both time, the scrolling electronic highway sign at the exit for the debate sign was flashing this helpful message:

"Turn Right - Debaffe Traffic".

So embarrassing, and even worse I never had my camera out to capture this historic event. I can just see Tom Brokaw searching for the exit, seeing the sign, and wondering what a Debaffe is and if he should've exited there.

Have a great week!

31.

2008-10-01T03:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!!!

So I may not be my thinnest, most in shape, about to run a BQ, do an Ironman or even be able to see my belly button these days, but somehow - I think 31 is going to be my best.year.ever.

I turned on the evening news
Saw a old man being interviewed
Turning a hundred and two today
Asked him what's the secret to life
He looked up from his old pipe
Laughed and said "All I can say is."

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your "better half"
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

Pink, Pearls and Perspective

2008-09-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope you all had great weekends, they just go by too stinking fast. We scored about 12 hardly worn baby outfits at a yard sale for $15 yesterday AND I finally found a dress for a wedding next weekend so it's been a successful weekend! And a super cute new pink sweater to wear on my b-day!

We've decided to do our nursery in pink and brown, like pretty much the rest of the universe having baby girls, and I think we may have most of the decor picked out. We ventured up into uncharted suburban territory Friday night and ran into a Joann's fabric/craft store to look at fabric. We came out with a sample of chocolate brown fabric with tiny pink embroidered spots that are so light they look pink. It fits in perfectly with our scheme, so we're going to order that and get my mom to sewing. =) Brent picked up some pink samples of paint at the HD last week. We finally picked out one that isn't so Pepto it's nauseating and it also has the nice brown undertone our whole house has. He just bought a quart to see if we could stomach it, so I spent some time this afternoon rolling it onto some of the walls and I think it looks really nice! After I finished painting I went to change back to "regular" clothes and realized I still had my pearl necklace on from this morning, when I paint I do it fancy. =) We're not doing all the walls in pink, and with the curtains, furniture and artwork it shouldn't end up too bubble-gum gorey! I'll have to take some pics for the private blog to compare alongside with the furniture and bedding pics I have up there already.

For some strange reason I decided that I'd like to knit my baby an afghan. I have never knitted a thing in my life and don't even have a clue where to start, but I classify myself as a smart person and I think it's something I can tackle. I picked a little book up at Joann's and 3 different colors of yarn as well as some needles. When I got home I realized I had bought a crochet book and all the stuff for knitting. This project really isn't starting out so well! I watched a few videos on YouTube and don't have a clue how to knit. I went online and requested several videos and books from the library that I can pick up tomorrow, so hopefully I can figure out how to do this..... I think I'm going to back off trying to do a tri-color blanket and just focus on one color for this first one!

I ended up with 3 workouts last week, last week was a tough one since I have a class on Tuesdays and we also had my boss's birthday lunch one day. I'm still happy with 3, though! I am now FULLY in cotton workout gear, no tech stuff fits anymore. It's a sad day! My birthday is coming up on Wednesday of this week, so it might be a light workout week this week, too. I am able to help Brent more with the phases of the current stair remodel, so I'm burning some extra calories at home! I spent this afternoon washing floors and also painting (in a large, well ventilated space!). AND, I got 12 of my 20 required hours for this year of CPE knocked out last week! (As a CPA I have to get 80 hours of professional training every 2 years, but at least 20 each year. Which I can speak from experience that they do audit, stupid auditors. =) ) I may go ahead and do some additional courses this year since next year will likely be a bit of a roller coaster around here. So, it's been a very busy week but so much is getting accomplished around here and things are starting to come together and be a lot less stressful in our household. (Although our washer - which will be 10 in January - acted up this afternoon. As much as I've wanted a super hot new stackable front loader I'd prefer to hold off on yet one more large purchase for at least a year! Between expensive nursery furniture, baby stuff in general, one last piece for our living room, and an impeding used car - we are purchased out!)

And lastly, I'll leave you with a semi-workout related tale of perspective. I've mentioned on here Pippin's been "acting up" lately. He's actually not been in trouble for a couple of weeks, until last Thursday. His primary temptation is my gym bag, for no apparent reason. I didn't take it to work Thursday because I knew I wouldn't be going, and sure enough Thursday afternoon its contents were spread all over the kitchen floor and he'd chewed a pair of (clean) undies up. We put him in timeout for 45 minutes - which he has come to anticipate so I do think it's working. Brent and I were talking about it later to try and figure out why he's so obsessed with my gym bag. I said I wondered if he liked to get into it since I always take it with me in the morning, and perhaps it's his way of saying "please don't go, stay here with me". Brent looked at me and said "I think he likes to get into it because it pretty much always smells like sweaty crotch."

I guess Brent's probably got this one figured out. =)

Will Work(out) for Food

2008-09-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Today is super exciting because the Office will be back tonight! Woo hoo!!! It's about time!! That has to be the best show, EVER.

Anyway, it's been a busy week with lots of stuff going on. The gas shortage in Nashville is getting much better, it's not nearly as difficult to find gas but it's still overpriced and a lot of stations are out. I took some pics to post later of what our gas stations looked like last weekend. I can't believe I paid $3.55 about two weeks ago and Brent paid $4.20 last Friday. Today I saw a sign for $3.99, which is the cheapest I've seen since Ike came through.

On the workout front, I've gotten in 2 so far and will have my 3rd for the week tomorrow. Tuesday a class I take at work resumed for the fall, so I won't be making it to the gym on Tuesdays anymore. Today was our department lunch for my boss's birthday, so it's been one of those weeks where other things are more important, which is A-OK.

Yesterday was a "member appreciation" day at the gym, so when I got there they had pizzas, juice, bananas and the popcorn machine going. I heart the popcorn machine! Next time Brent asks me what I want for my b-day I am going to say a popcorn machine + a prenatal massage! The WHOLE time I was working out all I could think about was how great a piece of pizza would be after my workout, it was right next to the machines, just calling out to me!!! So I did my workout, changed, grabbed a bag of popcorn (that's always upstairs) and headed down for pizza - only to be greeted by 4 empty boxes. SO CRUEL. Seriously, the whole thing is just odd - to have that sort of food for everyone - but I love it! I'd much rather have pizza than some whole grain nutrition bar, especially these days! Anyway, I cursed the fat hussies who ate all the pizza and headed back to work, crossing paths with a fellow coworker on his way in. I told him about the pizza debacle and we shared our disappointments. A while later he stopped by my desk and gave me a few bananas - he had raided the free banana stash on his way in and brought me a few! In my upset state I had completely forgotten to take any of them. How nice!

I have great coworkers and now that I am enormously pregnant they are all even nicer. From bringing me back bananas, to getting donuts for me at meetings so I don't have to get up, it pays to be preggers! Today we had a fire alarm - which happened RIGHT as a meeting I'd been in for an hour and a half ended. I REALLY had to go to the bathroom, but you never know if it's a real fire or not, so I evacuated like everyone else. After 20 minutes outside (on a beautiful day) I was ready to POP. And of course there was a line of women in the bathroom once we got to go back in - but they all ushered me ahead of them and let me skip. Baby growing has benefits!

Time to go, we've got to eat and then it's OFFICE NIGHT!!! WOOTTTTT!

Got gas?

2008-09-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Sorry not so much posting on here lately, most of what's going on around here is more suited for the private blog, so I'm keeping my biz in those parts lately. I think at some point I will probably only post there, and just use this one for exercise/getting back into pre-baby shape only. There are too many creeps and psychos in this world, those that you know and those you don't, for me to really be all about posting my life publicly, and esp the life of babygirl. And honestly, who doesn't have a blog these days?? It's getting a little much. There are some people's narrow-minded pea brains I wish I'd never seen the inside of......

I guess the main news around here is our big-time gas shortage. Nashville is pretty much out of gas. It's weird to drive around and see most gas stations roped off with caution tape because they have none, or no prices up on the signs because there's nothing left to sell. I rarely fill my tank up, usually I'm running late to work when I realize I need gas and since a tank lasts me right at a month, I typically put in some random amount before jumping in and rushing off. I ended up getting about 3/4 of a tank about 3 days before Ike and I'm really glad I did! On the other hand, Brent hasn't been so lucky. He needs gas about once a week, and got stuck having to get some the day of Ike - when price gauging started - and then needed a refill yesterday, when the massive panic and huge lines started (and even more price gauging). He had to drive all around the 'burb he works in to get gas, and for the first time ever we have premium in our car! The only station that had regular had massive lines (that extend into streets, etc) & would've taken him at least 30 minutes to get through. Our news is full of footage of people being lined up down streets, police called into various areas to help control "gas rage" and radio stations have people calling in just to let you know where you can get gas! Even our neighborhood message board has messages of people helping others find stations. It's crazy stuff. Here's an article on CNN about it...

We don't have too many places to go this weekend, so we should be able to conserve gas, and Brent can always drop me off at work if I end up having to give him my car with gas. Ironically we do need to do some car shopping, but this weekend just isn't the right time for riding all over town! We started looking last weekend, and have a few various models (used) in mind to replace the Jeep. We haven't spent much time on the car hunt yet, mostly because I will be sad to see it go and also hate to spend money on something so valueless as a car. But I can't see myself hoisting a baby in the back seat of a Wrangler, so it's time to get serious! Tomorrow we have to drive out the suburbs to order our crib and nursery furniture, and that's about as far as we'll have to go from the Eastside this weekend.

On workouts, I got in 2 lunch workouts. My goal pre-preg was 4/wk and now it's 3/wk. Monday was out because of our ultrasound date day, then Tues I was off-site at a meeting all day. Wed was way too gorgeous for the gym, so I did walk 1.5 outside at lunch in the wonderful weather before spending Thurs and Fri at the gym. And I still walk 1 mile each afternoon with a coworker, so babygirl and I are still burning our calories. Although prob not enough for the cheesecake we treated ourselves to from the Cheesecake Factory last night. =)

Ok, that's all for here! Have a great weekend!

Mini-Me or Mini-He?

2008-09-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

I thought about being mean and posting about our weekend, the famous celeb we saw at our fave burrito place, subsequently following him in our car after we left, about Pippin's fab new daycare/kennel and some cute screen shots of him playing via their webcams. Maybe even some excruciatingly boring details of my 4 workouts. But I know you really don't care about that so much today, right?

Our ultrasound went great! Our tech was super sweet, and that's probably one of the best jobs in the world. (Except for when it has to be one of the worst jobs in the world.) It was a completely surreal experience. All this time they tell you you're pregnant, and you certainly look it, but it still just doesn't quite sink in until that machine clicks on and you see this person absolutely kicking the fire out of you and just dancing around.

And of course you're glad to hear that baby is healthy and everything looks to be normal. But you want the goods, right?

Since the day they got married,
He'd been praying for a little baby boy.
Someone he could take fishing,
Throw the football and be his pride and joy.
He could already see him holding that trophy,
Taking his team to state

But you know how the song goes from there, right?

But when the nurse came in with a little pink blanket,
All those big dreams changed.
And now he's wrapped around her finger,
She's the center of his whole world.
And his heart belongs to that sweet little beautiful, wonderful, perfect All-American Girl.

Yup, we're having a feisty little girl! All the salty-loving, hair growing, face breaking out, pukey nauseated predictions couldn't have been more wrong. There's going to be a new pair of pink Nike onesies and tempo track shorts and a brand new Daddy's girl around here.

We spent the rest of our day out shopping, had lunch and gourmet cupcakes outside on a beautiful fall day and just enjoyed our time together. (And man am I beat!) We've got some pics to scan and maybe we can take some of the video off the DVD we got to put up on the other blog. But for now I've got some cute new pink onesies to put up and a girl name to come up with. =)

Election Year Polling

2008-09-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

Just a few hours to get your vote in! =) (Note that there is NO option for both!!!! Or more than one!!! )

Online Surveys & Market Research

TGIF!

2008-09-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Thank goodness it's Friday! I can't complain, the week's gone by quickly and next week is going to be a good one - the big U/S is Monday at 9:00 am! Woo hoo! I can't wait to give "it" at least a he or she. And hopefully hear that all is well in there and growing according to plan.

Since we've got our airfare and hotels for our trip to California, the only major thing left was booking a "hotel" for Pippin to stay in while we're gone. We normally leave him at his vet's and they take really good care of him but he doesn't get much play time and since he'll be away from home 8 nights (due to our flights) I want him to stay somewhere a little more fun. SO, tomorrow morning he has an 'interview' at a new kennel nearby. It looks like such a cute place, he'll get daycare play all day, a mandatory afternoon nap, and then be crated at night. Several places nearby don't crate at night, and our wildman really doesn't need to be left roaming with no supervision with other dogs in the evening. His interview will last for THREE hours tomorrow. They slowly intro him to other dogs, they want to see how he is with us, how he acts when he leave, etc. I hope he passes!!!! They also have live webcams, which I love!

I know I had other things to share but I can't remember them at all! Brent should be home soon from getting his haircut and then it's time to head out for some dinner! Yay!

Pippin vs the Shop Vac

2008-09-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is why projects at our house take a little longer than usual. (And yes, Brent's vacuuming up drywall dust and basically everything we own is regularly coated with that much stinking dust.)

Note the massively wagging nub of a tail. Additionally I hope if anyone ever does break into our house that they do it with power tools. Because they would be so screwed.

So Productive!

2008-09-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

I think I can feel pretty good about this weekend heading into another Monday. We've had some relax time & gotten a ton of stuff done, too.

Friday was gross and rainy thanks to Hurricane Gustav, so we got some takeout and brought it home to watch a movie I'd rented from the library (free!). We wanted to try something new, and people are always raving about Bolton's Hot Chicken Shack so we thought we'd check it out. The building isn't much to look at, and you have to knock on a door to let them know you're there if you don't slam the door long enough. There was a family eating there when we arrived who filled us in on "the rules". They were RAVING about their chicken, and gave us a lot of tips on what to order. I seriously thought I was in for the BESTMEALEVER because they'd drive from totally across town just for this chicken. I always love some catfish, but it seemed a shame to not try the hot chicken, so we decided we'd get one hot chicken plate and a hot catfish plate and share. (We share most of what we order when we eat out, we're a team all the time!) The service was wonderful and so friendly, but I've got to say the food wasn't all that. The catfish was really good - I ordered medium heat, and it comes with some hot sauce and hot mustard on top, along with pickles and onions. It had a really nice flavor, and the extra heat was nice, but Eastside Fish has way better catfish. For my sides I had their mac and cheese, which was really good, and greens. I wouldn't normally order greens, but the family we had talked to raved and raved about the greens so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Yeah, I still don't like greens. Just a personal preference, really. The main disappointment came in the chicken. It was just......dry. And it wasn't very big. I didn't care for it at all, I don't know if it was just overcooked or what, but it really wasn't good and was so small it wasn't easy to share. The heat was nice, we ordered Hot which was enough to make your lips burn a little but not too badly. But yeah, major disappointment, but I'm glad we finally tried them out.

We curled up and watched Waitress. It was really cute and funny, and made we want pie. I do get pretty frustrated watching movies like that because on TV pregnancy lasts such a short time. The "mean husband" called her "Chubs" once and Brent thought it would be funny to try that one on me since I laughed during the movie. Note to people: That's only funny on the movie. The whole time I thought the "other guy" was Jason Bateman. It turns out he has a major look-alike, and I'm not the only one who thinks that!

The rest of the weekend has been all about getting things done. I've bought clearance clothes online at Old Navy and Kohls for major discounts, ordered some CPE for the year - and even ordered some courses on tax deferred college savings and flexible spending health accounts because those will both be things applicable to use with babyontheway, booked our hotel rooms in San Diego for our babymoon, mowed the yard, did laundry, dug some more sweet potatoes, and started cleaning the house since (hopefully) most of the dusty, wretched drywall is done. Whew! And Brent's been busy on the stairs, cutting the oak treads, installing risers and so on and so forth. In some ways they are really starting to look like stairs, but there's still a lot left to be done.

And what's Pippin been up to? More hell raising! I shouldn't have had a "at least he hasn't done that" thought when a coworker told me on Friday that his dog broke the lawnmower by eating the starter cord. When we got home Friday Pippin had emptied the contents of my gym bag all over the kitchen floor. Clothes everywhere, makeup everywhere, just scattered. He didn't chew on a thing, just spread it all out for no apparent purpose. And then he did the SAME THING today while we were gone to church. So, he's had a few more timeout sessions this weekend, and today when we discovered the mess we didn't even have to chase him down - he went straight to his crate and quietly walked in. He KNOWS, but yet he can't stop it. Next Sunday he is going to church because that dog needs Jesus. I don't even understand - I've had lots of people tell me this showing out is baby related - but I'm spending more time with him than ever, so he's not being neglected, and as our house is still a construction disaster the couple of things I've bought (some clearance clothes) are away in a closet to stay out of the dust.

Have a great week everyone!

Updates....

2008-09-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn't teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever hear Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

"You're father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mocking bird."

-Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

I'm re-reading TKaM right now (for actually a pretty good reason) and I came across that piece of it last night and it just really spoke to me, so I thought I'd share it. That's such a good book, and it's been a million years since I read it in junior high. I'm reading my old copy of it right now, and it cracks me up to see all my old doodles and definitions of words I was unfamiliar with. Anyway.....

We had a nice Labor Day weekend, nothing great or big in the fun factor. Goal #1 is finishing the remodel right now before "junior" arrives, so about 95% of our time is spent working on that goal and generally keeping the house going. I also spent a good bit of time planning our upcoming vacay to San Diego, and I think I'll make my final hotel choices this weekend, and we have a list of some things we want to do and see.

We did pop by the pool at the downtown Y for the hour of the last day of its season this year. It was PACKED and it was so nice and sunny. We had a great time floating around in the pool and being amused by 3 college Louisiana evacuees and their college-girl banter. 98% of the crowd was just hanging out in the tiny rooftop pool (it's MAYBE 15 meters across, tops!) and then the other 2% - think it's actually a swimming pool. There was one odd couple in some seriously cheap goggles trying to "swim" around the throng of people hanging out. One of the absolute highlights of the afternoon was one of the LA girls telling the guy "Hey Michael Phelps, slow down!!" when he splashed the crap out of all of us. They took big head-bobbing, turtle breaths as they "swam" - this pool isn't even long enough to require even taking a breath. Then when he got to one end he told his little wife (they were prob 22-23 yrs old) that he was going to teach her a new stroke - he didn't know what it was called but he liked to call it "froggy style". That pretty much sent me over the edge of laughter, so we were both really glad we made some time for fun in an otherwise "all business" weekend.

Pippin didn't have the best weekend - he spent a lot of it in time-out. Sunday am while we were gone to church he got his bag of food down and starting his own self serve buffet. Sunday afternoon while we were at the pool he got my purse down, ate a pack of gum, probably a few cough drops and some Charms Blow Pop suckers (great for morning sickness). He got an hour in time out, and then as SOON as he got out he went to where he had hidden another sucker, so back in time out he went. Sunday was not his finest hour......

And then today - I got quite the wonderful package in the mail!!! Chocolate made by - Chocolate Runner Jon!! Yum, yum, and yum are all I really have to say about them!! Brent took some pics of Pippin's nose going crazy sniffing the outside of the box. Totally delicious, and I don't plan to share. =)

I've also got pics to share of our bounty from our garden this year. It's been crazy. We've had SO many tomatoes, and last weekend I started digging up sweet potatoes. The rain from Fran we had last week really helped my peppers, and I should have a ton of additional peppers soon. I don't think I've ever had such a good year for tomatoes or jalapeños, our weather has been so much milder this year and for the most part we've had pretty periodic rain, too.

I got my lunch workouts in on Tues, Wed and Thurs, so I'm a nice 3for3. I know I won't get to tomorrow due to a lunchtime wedding shower at work, but that's no biggie. Some days I really like having no pressure to train for anything specific. Actually, I haven't minded the cutback on training or felt like I'm missing the competitive part of running at all. I think I just have WAY too many things to stress about for training to even make the list right now!

Have a great weekend, I've got 72 posts (!!!!) in my Reader account right now, so I look forward to seeing what everyone has been up to!

Decision '08

2008-08-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

And no, I am so not talking about the election this year. Politics is something I really couldn't care less, and I think they're all crooks. Have I ever mentioned that Brent always writes me in for elections? Although I don't care for politicians, I do think it's important to vote, and if you don't vote you have no right to complain....and we all like to complain, right? So I always make Brent vote, and if he doesn't use his vote to offset mine and prove that voting is pointless (something he enjoys doing) then he writes me in! It's nice to know that in most elections I have at least one person who thinks I would do a good job at "fillintheblank".

AND, I did get a call for a political survey earlier this week. They asked me a billion questions about issues and who I would vote for, etc so at least this week when I saw poll numbers on the news I could say "they DID ask me!".

BUT, what I'm really talking about is we finally have a babymoon destination! And the winner is..... San Diego! Yay! My top two choices were San Diego and San Juan (my 3rd choice was San Antonio - I seriously don't get my San obsession). Brent sent me a link to the great deals Southwest posted for this week, and the savings to San Diego were massive, and much cheaper than San Juan - so I booked ASAP. We're going in mid-October, right towards the end of my 2nd trimester. I already talked about it with Doc earlier this month at my appointment and he was fine with an October trip, so it should all be good! Now I just have the massive decision of where to stay and what to do. Any suggestions are massively welcome! I'm all about going to the Zoo and probably SeaWorld. I've requested a bunch of books from the library, so this weekend I'll prob know more which side of town we'll want to stay on. And of course their should be meetups!

This trip will give us state #41, leaving us with only 9 more to see together (Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, West Virginia, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas & North Dakota). We've both been to Cali before, just not together. I've only been on business and saw very little of LA and San Diego, other than some various warehouse and office facilities of a former employer. But I did see LL Cool J, who was on our flight! This will be baby's 5th state (TN, WI, MI, & IA down), so ittybitty is already an experienced traveler! Depending on how much vacay time maternity leave takes maybe we can knock out a trip to WV and VA next year, and of course kiddo will be getting IL when we go to a certain wedding next summer . Personally I think Phog and Pippin would be adorable ring bearers, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they're formally asked.

And, I was able to time our trip where I can still "run" in Oktoberfest, one of my fave 5Ks of the year, and prob the last race I'll do preggers. It's the weekend before the trip, so I'm glad we'll be here to enjoy the festival and the race. It's large enough that if I do end up having to walk a lot that I shouldn't be embarrassingly last.

Ok, that's it.

Missing Ingrediants

2008-08-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope you all had great weekends and what not. And isn't it about time the Olympics are over? Not that anything new is really on TV from what I can see, but it will be nice to see the Office in a few weeks and of course the new Christian Slater show since it's been WAY too long since he's been in anything! (I had my room PLASTERED with pics of him growing up. I don't care if the show is dumb, I'll be watching! Most likely alone!)

So what did you think of the men's marathon? It's not that I am disappointed in the Americans, but they seriously didn't even look tired at the end. They just looked to be cruising. And it's not that they finished low in the stats, but I would've liked to see them a little more stressed at the finished. I loved the article about Ryan Hall in RW, so I just really wanted to see him in the top 3.

I had a nice little slow run, or "jaunt" as I refer to them, Thursday. This kid thinks pressing on my bladder at all times of the day and night is a blast, so sometimes I have to walk for a sec or slow down even more until kid finds a new spot, but I've learned it usually passes pretty quickly. I've also entered the cotton phase of running shorts, which is a new low for me. I can't really justify in spending $40 a pair for maternity running pants, so my cotton elastic "work in the yard" shorts will have to do. And I'm down to two larger running tops before I start raiding Brent's drawers and (serious gasp) start wearing large cotton Tshirts to work out in. The things we will do for our kids..... Thank God running socks and shoes will always fit!

I'm also entering that stage where confusion is a constant companion. The other day I was looking in the fridge for Kleenex and I've found my stamps and address book in the WRONG drawer lately. And there's the car tag renewal I threw away the other day, instead of the trash. Twice this weekend I FINALLY figured out what I was hungry for - only to be missing one ingredient from each recipe!!! I LOVES me some fruit tea, and instead of shelling out $6 a gallon from the cafe in our neighborhood I finally decided to try the recipe my SIL uses. Only to discover I had no frozen lemonade, and apparently there is no substitute I could find on the 'net (which is goofy since I have powdered lemonade, lemon juice and REAL lemons in my kitchen!!!!). On some other recipe calling for frozen lemonade someone said they substituted limeade for a slightly different flavor, and for some BIZARRE reason I did have that, so I gave it a whirl. It did give it a slightly different kick, but it's still really good (I also only used 12 ounces pineapple juice and a slightly larger can of orange juice.) Then I wanted to make chicken enchilada soup (like Chili's) only to discover that recipe calls for a type of corn flour I never even knew existed. I have flour, wheat flour, rye flour, bread flour, baking flour, cornmeal, polenta, corn starch and grits but apparently nothing can sub for this elusive Mexican corn flour. So that kind of sums me up right now, just missing a thing or two.

And WOW my stomach looks enormous right now. I'm thinking before long I won't even be able to see the screen. We did order Chinese delivery tonight, so maybe it's just that my stomach is puffed up with fried rice! We got rain today for literally the first time all month - and we SO needed it (thanks Hurricane thing!) My garden has been awesome all summer, we have tomatoes coming out of our ears and we dug our first sweet potatoes this weekend, but it is starting to suffer. Anyway, this was the first time we've tried delivery from this place and it was SO good! Their crab rangoons were to DIE for! They were fast and the food was good, and it was nice not to have to go pick up food.

Ok, time to end the ramble. There's really not a lot to say about last weekend. We had family work day Saturday during which my dad fell through one of the plywood temp steps and then nearly fainted, so that was exciting! We also ran into some peeps from college we hadn't seen in a year, and I figured I would "test" them and see if I looked pregnant or not by not saying anything, and seeing if they noticed. In all fairness, this was after church yesterday and the shirt I was wearing is so "poofy" that it's hard to tell, but my buggy was FULL of cute baby clothes on clearance at Target, so that gave it away almost more than looking at me. I'm still in that "fun" stage where people wonder and just ask other people instead of embarrassing themselves. (That happened last week at work - a coworker wasn't sure so she asked someone else, HA!).

Alrighty, three weeks from today we find out Brent Jr or Rachel Jr, woo hoo! And we'll be past the half way point, the first half marathon of baby growing will be over!

OH, just one last thing (seriously - note the lack of organization here!). When my parents were here last weekend they were talking about the Olympics and said they had seen the women's marathon the weekend before. Then my mom asked me if that's how far I had run - that she and dad had talked about it and decided that surely I would never run 26 miles because that is just WAY too far. I pretty much had to convince her that YES, I had run that far - four times in fact (I didn't even go into all the training runs of nearly that distance). I explained I don't run it nearly as fast as those women, but that yup, that's what I've done before.

Ok, good night for real!

The Dog ate my Library Book

2008-08-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

Things in life that are a little embarrassing:

Getting a letter in the mail from the library saying you owe them $19 for a book you've returned with pages that have chew marks and tear on them. Going down to the library and admitting that you do have a dog, but he's never shown any interest in reading. Asking them if they could check the previous owner, because you're not entirely convinced you damaged the book. Hearing them say you're the only person who has ever checked the book out, and then hearing yourself ask who to make the check out to. Sigh.

But really, now that I bought this book (and they returned to me) it really doesn't look like a Pippin activity. When he gets into something he demolishes it. This was delicate chews and some sharp scratches. When Brent looked at it he thought hamster/mouse, which is really much more how it looks. And considering I return books via the drop, and they're not checked in until the following morning - an industrious mouse could've really had a good night with MY book.

The contractor got all finished with the projects we had for him yesterday, so now all the major remodel type stuff in the nursery is done! There's still some painting for us, and we have an outdoor water faucet in there to be removed (seriously, you could plug a hose up INSIDE the house, in the nursery - it makes NO sense!), but that's all pretty minor (for us). All the new baseboard is already painted and we just have to put it in. Everything seems to be coming along in good time!

OH, and I did forget to note that Brent and I are the only two losers left in the world who don't have passports. I rarely plan our vacations that far in advance, so it's never conducive to getting one, and I never remember unless I'm shopping for a getaway! So, wherever we go will have to be a US type place (or cruise where you leave from the US). The more I look at cruises the more I think it's just not us, and now I'm leaning towards 3 San's : San Diego, San Antonio, and San Juan, and I may be leaning more towards San Juan. I can't wait for a vacation!!!

For the love of God, how much more gymnastics can there possibly be in the Olympics?????

P.S. The pic of Pippin from above is from a couple of weeks ago right after he ripped his dew claw. I like his look of "Why would you want to bandage my leg up like this? Don't you know I'm going to have this off in 15 minutes?"

P.S.S. I've had two good workouts this week, Mon and Tues. I had too much work today to leave and go to the gym at lunch. Of course I did have one person tell me (nicely) on my way back in from the gym yesterday that my body is just not going to be the same after. How many times have I already heard THAT one! I always say, Nope, it's just going to be better because I have NEVER had that much time off work to workout. =) People.

The FAQs

2008-08-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

Hey!! So I guess I decided my last post would be more than a little hard to follow and just wasn't sure what to say! Thanks for all the well wishes regarding our upcoming family addition! It's been quite exciting for us, to say the least!

It's truly odd the things that people say to you when they find out you're expecting! The news has been spreading around for the last month. I would've preferred to hold off longer, but it was becoming rather....obvious. When I had only put on FOUR pounds people at work were starting to speculate! Now the weight gain is around 6-7 depending on the day, and depending on what I'm wearing I either look like I'm Krispy Kreme's greatest fan or pregnant.

And once people found out, out comes various things spewing from their mouths! Sometimes I wonder if they even THINK about what they're saying.

Was this planned? HUH??? Seriously, we'll both be 31 soon, we've been married for nearly 10 years, we both have good jobs, a roof over our head (new, in fact!)!!!! For YEARS people have wanted to know when we would have kids, and now they are wondering why! And how is that even any of their business!

Do you even know how much your life is going to change? If I had a dollar, even a QUARTER for how many times I've heard that! It sort of goes along with Q#1. It's like they want to rub in how our "quiet little existence" is over and we'll be all Cheerios and poop like they are now.

How is Pippin going to handle this? Well, I guess he'll still steal food off plates, lick his rear end at 2 in the morning, and most likely go ape anytime people come over. Life will somehow manage to go on for Pippin! On some weird level he seems to already get it, and will not leave my side, at all. We've had a contractor in the house all weekend, all he literally JUST noticed him about twenty minutes ago for the first time.

Surely you don't run anymore! Oh, but I do. My obgyn is very laid back and I can run as long as it's comfy and I keep it conversational. I run less, no long runs, and no running outside in the heat. I'm content with 11 min miles and walk breaks when I feel like I need it. I still run about 3 times per week, and then do other things on the other days. So many people have told me that I now "Have a license to eat" which is SO not true! Everything you gain you've got to lose, so I try to eat sensibly and not eat just for the sake of it!

And then come all the labor and new baby horror stories. What's up with that??? I've been told anything from my body will never be the same to be prepared to pee yourself every time you laugh for the rest of your life. Sure, THEIR body was never the same, but considering the sources I doubt their body was much to write home from before hand!

Let's see, in other news lots of progress is being made on our projects here. Our "deadline" is Oct 1 (my b-day) and having all this messy construction over with would be the best bday gift EVER. And basically ALL of it falls on Brent now that I can't paint, sand, etc. This weekend we have a guy in working on the nursery drywalling around the new skylights and drywalling the outside of the new closet. Both of these projects are about 15-18 feet in the air, things we were interested in tackling! On the actual new stairs Brent has most of the new drywall up, mudded, sanded, primed and painted. Our families are coming back next Saturday for more "family fun work day"!

Once these projects are doing we are going on a babymoon! The trouble is I just can't decide where! Much like I absolutely never know what I want to eat now, I can't decide where I want to go. I've shopped cruises, resorts, places we've been and places we haven't. I just want to stay somewhere nice and relaxing, and not do much of anything for a week. Feet up, nice warm spot. Since it'll be late October that does rule out quite a few places! Right now I'm looking Caribbean, San Diego, or South Texas. Any ideas of fab resorts you've been to?

Alrighty, that's it for now! Baby is getting hungry! And the other FAQ - are you finding out what you're having? YOU BET! Sept 15th, for all you inquiring minds!

Jan 31, 2009.

2008-08-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
I don't wanna miss even one song,
Cuz all too soon the clock will strike midnight

Is there ever a post you've written over and over in your head? Not just once, but for days and weeks, maybe even months. Something so big you don't even know how to start it, how to even verbalize everything you want to say, or the tone you want to say it in. Something just SO much bigger than words.

We're having a baby!!! Jan 31, 2009.

For you fellow mathematicians that puts me at a secret we've held for 15.5 weeks now. And a lot of you have known for a few weeks now, and thanks for not publicly spilling the beans while we make sure we get a chance to tell people ourselves.

I can't even put into words everything we're feeling right now! Excitement, pure joy, and scared witless. Hearing that little heartbeat (159 bpm at yesterday's appt) is like nothing else in the world, it's just unfathomable. It just seems like so many other things just don't even matter anymore, it's all about incubating this little person to the best of my ability, a task we're ALL taking seriously. I swear on some level Pippin knows-he basically does not let me out of his sight anymore, period.

I have so many hopes and dreams and a whole new host of things to be scared of and worry about, none of which have anything to do with me. I could care less if I never run another mile, but I can't wait to run the streets of our great city with our little bumblebee pimped out in a jogging stroller. I can't wait to show this new person all the wonderful places Brent and I have been to - the serene coast of Maine, the beauty of Oregon, the insanity of Mt Rushmore, the unfathomable beauty of Bryce Canyon. There are so many things to see again from a new pair of eyes. I can't wait to swing on the porch after next year's Tomato Festival with a giggling baby. I can't wait to hear one more person complain about the quantity of Christmas trees I like to decorate, and the sheer madness of putting out the Halloween decorations on October 1st every year. One more person to tell me I honk way too much in traffic. There will be a new person to tell the story of how Brent and I met all those years ago, and how I knew right away he was the one, and what a great dad I knew he'd be. A new person to love on Pippin, and become the new object of his affection.

I think my little 7 year old nephew said it best last week when he IM'd me and asked me for the hundreth time when "we would be getting the baby". He said "I wonder who my new cousin will be" and I admit I wonder the same thing, just about every minute of every day. It's just more exciting than any words can do justice.

'08 Tomato Festival

2008-08-11T17:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a few pics from this year's Tomato Festival. We really didn't take that many, I don't know how that happened!

I've got no pics from that morning's 5K run. We ate some pretty raunchy Chinese food Fri night (that had Brent puking around 1 am) so I decided to sleep in and not run. The race comes up our block and turns around about 3 houses before ours. Since it's organized by the supremely craptacular East Y there's a) no notice to those who live on our street of said race and road closures and b) pretty terrible street volunteers. We waited for the first runners, and the 3 teenage volunteers who could not have POSSIBLY cared less didn't explain to him where to turn back around (or acknowledge the runners whatsoever). Clearly if you think you're going to be first look up the race map BEFORE - it's been posted for weeks. I'm not sure his final time, but we didn't think he looked all that swift anyway, and the big race in tow (aka the competitive race) was in Smyrna - a great race I've done several times. Anyway, the guy kept going all the way to our house, the cop tried to set him straight but he was mouthing off so much he didn't listen, then another cop tried to keep him from going around another wrong way before he finally got headed the right direction. He kept mouthing off and yelling for about as far as we could see, and after the first 7 or 8 runners were totally rude to us - the only people out cheering WHAT-SO-EVER we said screw it and walked up to the new coffee joint for breakfast instead.

Our friends S&N came around 11 to head down to the Tomato Fest. Woo hoo!!! We had a great time and were down there until around 4 or so. I was SO glad I put sunscreen on! Here's a few pics from the fun-ness that is the festival:

S & I with "Melba Toast", to me the unofficial icon of the Festival.

Brent's submissions for the art show this year:

The artist with his section:

The festival was CROWDED! Pretty much all the activities take place between 10-3. There's lots of contests, music, activities, etc. We had various tomato samples & tastings, shopped the booths, enjoyed some of the music & contests (like ugliest tomato, haiku contest, etc), of course visited the gallery & kids art show, had I Dream of Weenie dogs for lunch, Las Paletas Popsicles for dessert, and then snow cones to top it off! Good times!!!

This homeless guy lives in our neighborhood. He's a very nice guy and I always feel bad for him with whatever is wrong with his foot. I like this pic because he's just stretched out and enjoying the day like everyone else. (We actually have a better pic where people are completely crowded around him but it's SO full of people that you would never even be able to pick him out.) The theme of the Festival is the Tomato: a Uniter not a Divider and I think this one pretty much sums it up.

Neighbors sharing their bounty:

All in all, it was another great year at the Tomato Festival. I can't wait until next year!!!!

Happy Birthday Boo!

2008-08-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today is Pippin's 5th birthday! And with it being a Saturday we can spoil him ALL WEEKEND LONG! We had peeps over last night and today, so he's happy with the quantity of people he's gotten to jump on, plus the nice long walk we took this morning. Of course what makes him happiest: doggie birthday cake!

For his 2nd b-day we shipped in a gorgeous cake, for his 3rd we had a smaller cake shipped in, and last year I made his cake for the first time (which I apparently never posted pics of!) He absolutely loved his carrot cake last year (and it's gotten INSANE to order dog cakes online), so this year I made him a peanut butter carrot cake, with peanut butter "icing", sprinkled with dog food. I'll let you decide whether or not he liked it, but right now he is curled up as close to me as he could possibly be!!

The cake:

Presentation:

Pippin is ALL TONGUE:

You can see his brain exploding in excitement:

Going to town:

We do NOT let him eat the whole cake. We let him lick on it for a couple of minutes and the cut him a small piece!

We had a great time at Tomato Fest today, and Brent's neck is the color of a tomato since he didn't wear sunscreen! We were there from around 11-4, and then back for a little while this evening for the artists reception. It was a great day and we had loads of fun. Pics of that to come later, but Pippin's birthday was #1 important!

Happy Birthday Boo!!! The last 5 years have been a blast, and I can't wait to see all the crazy, new adventures you're going to supply us with in this upcoming year. It's going to be a BLAST! You're the best dog eva and you will forever be our first baby boo!

The Endless Battle......

2008-08-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

Actual convo I'm having over AIM with my 7yr old nephew:

Him: It's 8:47!
Me: No, it's 7:47
Him: At MY house it's 8:49!
Me: That's because you live in Eastern Stupid Time and I live in Central Smart Time.

So the Pippin update: We decided to wait one week and keep him coneheaded and crated while we're gone to work so he'll leave it alone. She was happy with how it was healing, so next Tues we'll go back and see if it's still continuing to heal well. Of course keeping the cone on is a little difficult with McGyver Pup here. The last two days he's managed to pull it off. Saturday is his 5th birthday so I've got some baking to do this weekend!

Also this weekend - the Tomato Festival!!! I had thought about doing the 5K but some stomach "issues" today have me thinking I should skip this one if I don't feel better tomorrow, ugh! We plan on spending a lot of time there Saturday, and Brent has 3 pieces in the gallery again this yr so I'll have pics of those later. Last year he did GREAT - sold all 3 pieces and one of them got 2 additional orders!!! That's going to be hard to top but he has some fun and creative stuff this year, too.

Ok, that's all for now! It's too hard to concentrate with SYTYCD finale going on! Come on Katee!!!

Work Days Lead to Rest Days!

2008-08-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!! How's it going????

The Pippin update: Tomorrow we've got an afternoon vet appointment. He just won't leave his ripped dew claw alone. I got some gauze Thursday but of course he wasn't a big fan of it and made pretty short order figuring out how to get it off. I'm sure he had the latest round off about 10 minutes after I left for work on Friday! And Saturday morning after he had the bandage off in about 15 minutes I decided it wasn't worth it. It's not bleeding or bothering him, the tear just won't show any signs off repair, and he's CONSTANTLY licking it. If he bumps it on something (aka jumping on people) he squeals, but other than that he's in no pain and not limping. It seems like he'll probably just have to have it removed, which means I'll most likely be taking care of a dog who has to wear the dreaded conehead again so he'll leave the sore alone. Just in time for his 5th birthday this Saturday!!!!

Saturday our parents came up to help us work on our house, woo hoo for free labor! We got a ton of stuff done - the ladies got GOBS of new casing, baseboards, custom frames Brent has built for some art, etc painted. It was about a million degrees outside (upper 90's before you even factor in the humidity) and just plain miserable so they don't owe us a thing for Christmas! The guys did some framing at the top of the new staircase, hung some drywall, planed a few doors, reattached the fireplace mantel in the front room, did some floor work, cut the skirts for the new staircase and even fixed our weedeater! I can't even explain what a huge help everyone was, well worth the big lunch I fixed and the pizza ordered for dinner! They were like parents possessed with the get'r'done bug!

So.....with all that help we decided to have an actual rest day on Sunday!!! That is the day we're supposed to rest, right??? We had a nice leisurely lunch at La Paz after church, took a nap, headed to the pool for a little while, and even did a little tax-free clothes shopping. It was SO nice to just have a day with no projects!

Our self-imposed deadline for getting the stairs done is October 1st (my birthday). It'll be nice to have it all done well before Christmas so we can just enjoy fall and prop our feet up for a while. Brent's been hard at work all night hanging more drywall and doing some wiring while I manage the bills and dishes and keeping our very dry gardens watered. And playing a little ball with Pippin. =)

I had a pretty decent run today at lunch. I swear the gym is about 500 degrees inside, and I know I'm not the only one feeling that. It's getting a little crazy - I don't know if the insane heat outside makes it hard to cool inside, or if this is somehow related to the construction or what. I think I may have to start taking a water bottle with me to stay a little cooler!

Ok, that's all for now! Thank goodness tonight is the Nashville Star finale, these people suck and I am ready for it to be over!!!! Maybe next year it'll be somewhere else because I've heard much better people singing outside on 2nd than these people. Ugh.

Dare Dawg

2008-07-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

SO, if you've read this blog for more than like five minutes, you know Pippin can be a bit - adventurous. Perhaps a little hyper. Often referred to around here as "wild man". He's not know for his grace or prowess. Or even for being a "good hunting dog". He would never be recruited for drug sniffing, bomb sniffing, or criminal nabbing. And I doubt he'd even come close to passing seeing-eye training courses as he's easily distracted and would prefer to be carried versus leading others.

So yeah, it probably shouldn't have been a big surprise when I got home at 6 tonight (after grocery shopping) and there was blood running down his leg. He was also coated in mud from the big showers we got this afternoon. He was happy as a lark except I was a BIT CONCERNED about the blood running down his leg!!!! Brent and I wrangled the dirty, muddy, hyper dog and after cleaning him up we were able to see he had cut one of the little pad thingies on his foot - the little thumb one that's on the bottom part of their leg, right above the foot. The actual tear wasn't bleeding too much though. I figure he probably tore it running up and down the fence-graceful dog most likely tore it on some limb or root or possibly didn't make a leap over one of my rose bushes in his pursuit of things on the other side of the fence.

We debated going to the emergency pet clinic on 12th - they are GREAT, but decided to keep an eye on it since he was in no pain. It was still oozy and so we kept him inside, at which point he became obsessed with licking it (licking is his fave hobby). I guess that's a natural instinct, so we let him do it some until we started worrying that he wasn't letting it clot. Geniuses that we are we have no first aid kit. We have band aids, ointments, peroxide,etc but no gauze stuff. We tried putting bandaids on it but bandaids don't respond well to Lick. I tried doubling up bandaids, but double bandaids also don't respond to Lick. We went the "distraction" route and gave him a couple of new toys to chew on which did distract him for a while.

It's still sort of open, but I've gotten him curled up on a blanket with me tonight to watch So You Think You Can Dance (I just love Katee and Joshua together!!!! Brent and I are SO going to learn their pasa dobla dance!). It looks better and isn't bleeding, so I don't think he needs stitches. He's not limping or anything, either, so I think I'll just keep it clean and keep and eye on Trouble with Four Legs. He probably won't be happy with me when I don't let him play outside tomorrow morning while I get ready!!

So yeah, that's just another evening in the life here at home with my boys! Never a dull moment..... And buying a true First Aid Kit is now on my "to do" list!

The Universe was talking to me, too.....

2008-07-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I love about this neighborhood, and the people are basically #1. I'm sure we're not as pretty and fluffy as all the lovelies in Green Hills and Brentwood, but we are fun and quirky and really HELP each other. And thank goodness we drive less gas guzzling SUVs than those people.

Growing up in Midtown Memphis (ooooh....scary!! =) ) if you didn't want something you put it out on the curb and someone would take it. Easy, breezy, gone. The thing about living middle class is that you share your fortunes and pass things on to people who need it, no hoarding allowed. Brent and I completely furnished our first apartment with things we got from the side of the road and from people's trash piles of stuff that didn't sell following their yard sales.

With the front den reno into a guest room nearing completion, it was time to get rid of the remaining couches. In the past few months this room has consisted of: one old coffee table, one old sofa sleeper couch, one old loveseat, one old futon, one old couch, an old desk and one very cool vintage sofa. None of it in bad shape, most of it just stuff we didn't have a place for in this house. All.in.one.room. At.the.same.time. We gave the loveseat, coffee table and desk to a charity similar to Habitat that helps people get a fresh start. The sleeper sofa went to Salvation Army. The vintage sofa finally has a perfect spot in our spacious dining room. So that left us with a futon and our old couch. We're getting ready for the final touches to this room, which is going to involve scaffolding, drywall, and the resulting drywall dustmess, and since we knew we weren't going to keep this stuff it was time to pay it forward.

After lunch we decided to drag out the futon, a shelving unit we don't need and an old TV. After some serious finagling to get the futon out the doors but we made it out and put it on our corner with a big FREE! sign. We were still sweeping and vacuuming from where the futon was when a couple of guys in a PT Cruiser pulled up and starting loading the futon. Did I mention the PT Cruiser??? Brent went out and helped them - the mattress sort of fit in the back and they put the frame on top and held it with one hand each!! It was quite the sight and I can't believe I didn't take a pic. (They live less than a half mile away). About 10 mins later someone else stopped for the shelves and TV. At this point we decided to go ahead and put the couch out and maybe we could get rid of all the furniture in one day! We were having some issues when the original PT Cruiser guy was driving by, saw us, and stopped to help! How nice!!! We ended up taking to him for a while and he actually lives across the street from a couple of our friends. He has a futon mattress, but no futon and said this morning he was really hoping he could a futon frame for cheap - and voila! We were so glad it could find a good home, and glad he stopped to help us! (It's friggin hot outside and this morning as we were walking into church I asked Brent if we could move up North! He said we could have a summer house up North! Yay!)

It took the couch less than 20 minutes to be gobbled up by a guy in a truck, so all our hand-me-downs have happy new homes. And we have a very, very cleaned out front room to finish converting to a bedroom!

I've got loads of pics to download of all the continued construction on the stairwell. There's been a lot more mudding and drywalling and sanding. The hall closet door is up now, and we've bought a lot of wood to start the trimming out of the stairs (the skirt for those of you who know things about building....) Hopefully within the next few days the living room side wall will be all painted and we'll no longer have a cluster of living room furniture huddled in the middle of the floor. There's such a furniture trap in here that Pippin couldn't even figure out how to get to his bed this afternoon!

I've also got some pics of the "interesting" place we ate dinner last night to share. Friday night we had Indian which was AWESOME! It's been ages since we've had Indian. I've been wanting it for a while but when my throat was so sore during my sinus issues I knew it wouldn't go well, so it's been a long time coming. And it was SO.GOOD.

Anyway, that's all the news around here (mostly!). Have a great week!

Dust Factory

2008-07-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! How weird is it that I'm watching Elf on USA-HD, in July??? Maybe the true weirdness is that it's even playing on TV right now? I get so off with my holidays - at work I've been working on Valentines 2009 and also Mother's Day 2009, so I'm already waaay past Christmas this year. So really, watching a Christmas movie suits me. And it's SO INSANELY HOT outside that at least it helps me forget about that!

With it being 5billion degrees I haven't ventured outside for a lunch run in ages. I ran last Thursday, walked on the treadmill Friday (my shins were bothering me), did the elliptical yesterday and then ran today. I really need to get some new Mizunos because I can feel how worn out they are in my shins but I just haven't had time to get down to the running store I prefer. I've got a 5K coming up in a few weeks, and I know it won't be anywhere near a PR, it's just a race I'd like to do.

So now Brent has reclaimed the remote and has it on The Office reruns - which is playing a Christmas episode. Weird. It must be Christmas in July on cable or something.

The new stairwell is coming along well. Brent's got the drywall hung, mudded and dusted - so our entire house is covered in dust. When all these renovations are done I'd love to just move out and hose down this house from all the dust from all the drywall we've done. I'm pretty sure if you shook Pippin you'd get a pile of dust. Brent also put the first coat of primer on the stairwell drywall, so maybe by this time next week the living room side will be all painted.

So has everyone heard about Dean's movie coming out next week??? Sounds like fun! I wish one of the locations were closer to me, but I'll guess we'll be heading out to the 'burbs for a movie night! Sadly the last movie we saw in the theater was the Chicago marathon movie earlier this year!!

Have a great week!

Scenes from the 4th.....

2008-07-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

Better late than never.....here's how we spent our 4th (at my parent's annual 4th of July party).

Pippin: Well, bless his heart he wants to be included in the festivities but sweetie pie just doesn't like the heat. So he decided to sit under the tent and watch us all fishing from his shady vantage point. This probably made my parents happy since no one else at all ever sat under the tent.

Nephew caught 6 fish but I only caught one - this one. Not too shabby. The nephew's secret: live crickets (put on the hook by my brother.) In the category of "things you can see coming"....For some reason the little box of crickets was kept inside the house, in my parents laundry room (so they wouldn't "cook" outside). Sunday morning, about 5 mins before we're about to leave for church, my bro catches my nearly 7 yr old nephew in the laundry room - top off the cricket box. He swore only 3 got loose. Before we left that afternoon 4 crickets had been recovered, from various rooms in the house.

I like the expression on niece's face in this one - so much excitement regarding the caught fish!

And in the category of world's smallest fish.....my dad caught this little one which would've made good bait! (On a side note, no fish were harmed at this event, all were tossed back in the pond and one was kicked back in by my brother - earning him the name "scaredy cat" echoed by nephew and niece repeatedly because he didn't want to touch the fish.)

And we all tried out nephew's scooter. I like this pic because once I got on it my little comprade had to come along and make sure nothing bad happened to me. He's my 24-7-365 shadow. We were hoping for some good pics of either my dad or brother falling off the scooter that we could get lots of prints made for our Christmas cards, but everyone managed to stay upright on the scooter. Maybe at Thanksgiving!

There were also fireworks, but I totally missed those. Pippin HATES fireworks, and as soon as Brent started shooting them Pippin was howling, crying, and generally freaking out. Nephew had been amped about the fireworks all day, so in the interest of not spoiling his night and in the interest of "getting the screaming baby out of the restaurant" we went inside where he still cried a little and generally hated the noises going on outside.

So that pretty well brings you back up to now. With the whole sinus thing going on we really didn't go much of anywhere. We watched a movie, did things around the house, had a nap or two. Sat night I was ready to get out of the house and I was dying for spinach dip so we headed over to Green Hills Grille - only to discover that's it totally out of business. YIKES. We went to Bistro 215 next door, total mistake. Yuk and Yuk and overpriced. We ate their once a million years ago before a movie, and I think back then their menu was more cafe and less overpriced crap. They had spinach dip so we stayed, but I make way better spinach dip. Theirs had a huge glob of sour cream in the middle that completely overpowered the actual taste. A little glob is great - I love sour cream on a lotta things - but this was like half a tub. We both got chicken dishes and Brent's just looked gross to me and mine just did not hit the spot. My throat was so sore that it killed to swallow and I just couldn't eat it. Literally all we had were our two chicken dishes, spinach dip and 2 waters and it set us back $48. I make a much better version of the chicken dish I ordered at home, and if we had just stayed in and cooked the stuff ourselves it would've cost us less than $10. I don't mind spending a lot on a GOOD meal - but it should be impressive, or at least edible.

I was so miserable when we left that we stopped by Walgreens to talk to the pharmacist about some good medicines for me to take for my throat. I was over the sinus and drainage point, and mostly over coughing, but my throat was still SO sore - it's like I had really bruised it from having to talk and work so hard all week in Atlanta. Anyway, I got some stuff that's really helped me. My throat is still a little sore, but much better and I can actually eat now! If I get too hot I start coughing again, so yesterday I just did the elliptical and today I ran/walked, slowly. Any time I'd feel the "throat tickle" come back up I'd slow it down and walk a little. I've got a couple of 5Ks coming up over the next few months (one in Aug, one in Oct) so there's nothing really pressing right now that I've set my sights on, so there's no need to press recovering from being sick. I REALLY need to get back in the pool, but the Y pool has been jam packed at lunch recently, what's up with that??? Must be a lot of tri training going on!

In other thoughts, I want to do the Bride of Frankenstein dance from So You Think You Can Dance. And I want Twitch to be my partner. And I really, really think Comfort needs to go home for REAL this time. I am also in love with Josh and Courtney and Katee and Will (and Twitch, my future partner). And why does the tour not come here??? Charlotte?? Really?? It doesn't even go to Atlanta!!!!!!

Have a great night!

Back from Hot-lanta

2008-07-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had great weeks, full of whatever you want them to be full of! I've been gone all week on a biz trip to Hot-lanta with some of my coworkers for GiftMart. It was so great!!! I went with 4 of the buyers whose $$$ I control to help them with planning next year's spring and summer lines (as well as some brainstorming for next fall). I am SO glad I've had so many great professional opportunities over the past few years to do interesting things as a CPA. Accounting and auditing and financial budgeting are so not for me, and even though I spent years doing boring junk like that I've also been able to work my way into far more interesting niches involving numbers, such as my current gig (for a great company, to boot!). We had a blast, I work with such a great group of people and even though it's been a tough year of streamlining and downsizing we have a great group that's only going to get better. The days were absolutely exhausting - we'd leave our room around 7 am and spend the day in vendor meetings, product showrooms, vendor lunches (while having more product presented while we ate) and then straight to vendor dinners. We'd finally get back to our room around 9 pm, absolutely beat! Going from sitting on your rear all day at a desk to literally walking this massive 18 floor building all day long with hardly any sitting was very hard work, but such a great experience that I feel so fortunate to have had. Our last meeting wasn't over until 5 last night, so after we spent ages in crappy Atlanta rush hour traffic we got home around 11 last night. Another perk of business travel with my company is the "free day" you get off when you come home. They figure since you've been away from your fam you should have a day to sleep in and spend time with them, so I've spent today as a total veg with my pal Pippin taking massive naps, sleeping in and watching TV!

And of course I spent the whole week sick. At the end of last week my allergies really started kicking it up, and the weekend outside fishing at my parents farm for their annual July 4th festivities made it even worse. So I spent the whole week coughing and hacking (horribly), hardly sleeping from the coughing, and now my throat is completely raw. Having to talk all day long all week made it so much worse, I'm already feeling so much better today from just spending the day being quiet and resting. I really don't feel bad now - it just hurts like razor blades to swallow, so I don't want to eat much although I know I need to. It totally stank to be sick for my first Market experience. But you make the most of it and I didn't want to miss a thing so you just keep chugging on.

Brent had dropped me off at work on Monday (we left from work) so he picked me back up at work when we made it back last night. I walked in to a clean house (yay!) with fresh, homemade cookies - the no bake peanut butter oatmeal kind that are my faves! Do I have the best hubby or what??? So I literally had nothing to do today except rest on the couch with Pips and watch some TV. The perfect day!

Anyway, I took lots of pics and I'm sure we have some fun ones from July4th to share too. (I literally haven't even seen those - I went from our weekend suitcase to the business suitcase). Have a great weekend!!!

5K for Fatherhood Race Report

2008-07-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Good evening everyone! There just seems to be little time for blogging lately, but I do finally have a race report for a change to talk about!

Last weekend I laced up for the 5K for Fatherhood, put on by a local charity called the Family Foundation Fund here in Nashville. This agency is truly remarkable - they're committed to doing positive things for boys with no male influences in their life.

Here are some stats from their website:

Fatherless children represent:

63% of teen suicide
70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions
71% of high school dropouts
75% of children in chemical abuse centers
80% of rapists
85% of youths in prison
85% of children with exhibit behavioral disorders
90% of homeless and runaway children

Since 1993 the Family Foundation Fund has served the Metro Nashville and Middle Tennessee areas by providing a mentoring program to fatherless and disadvantaged boys, ages ten years old and older. Through this unique and effective ministry, these boys are nurtured by local Christian men who volunteer their time as surrogate dads to provide leadership, discipline and unconditional love.

God is using Family Foundation Fund to make a difference. Since 1993:

42 boys have been mentored
13 have completed program
100% have made commitment to Christ
100% are continuing their education after high school or working full time
12 are presently being mentored
None using drugs
No children born out of wedlock

Pretty powerful stuff, huh? Instead of treating them like lost causes and clutching their purses tighter when passes on the streets, this organization is making a positive difference in Nashville.

I first got involved with them 4 years ago - this was my first ever race back in 2004. I'd been running about 2 whole weeks with a friend + Brent and we saw this race online and decided to sign up. Back then we didn't even know where Shelby Park was - now we live less than a half a mile away! I had no clue when I ran that race that a running "career" was starting! Even though I haven't been consistently running as much lately, I wanted to do this race for a lot of reasons. I support this organization as often as I can, and I always look forward to the race and seeing the young men, their mothers, and their mentors out there running and walking, full of joy. Races are really a lot more than just running.

It was a warm morning, but really I was just there for a "jog", to support the race, and keep up my streak with this race! Yay for my only 5-peat! A coworker of mine (J) also ran, and I started out with him. I took my time and just enjoyed the day. I hate racing 5Ks (running at vomit threshold is not my thing) so I just ran what I felt. And UGH was it humid and sunny! The big celebrity chair this year was Vince Gill. He didn't run it, he shot the gun off for the start, and then performed a few songs before the awards. And of course I had my pic made with him. =)
And of course they had ChickFila chicken biscuits afterward - Brent's fave which I am ALWAYS happy to give to him since I can't eat stuff like that after running!

Anyway, it was a great day, a great race, a great cause and of course a great reason to have a pic made with a celeb!!!

Vince with the starting gun:

About halfway through the race:

Vince Gill & I:

Performing a few songs before the awards:

Happy Running!!!

3-tacular!

2008-06-26T18:23:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! I ran a great 3 miles at lunch today and it was just nothing short of lovely! No whiny knee or anything else irritating. Yay! I'm hoping to repeat this weekend and we'll just see how it goes although time is a bit tight this weekend.

Can I just say right here I am so going to win So u think u can Dance next year?? That is if I'm not already too old to get on the show!! If I am maybe I can just be a judge and squeal along with the lady judge.

Also, can I just say Chili's is the best chain restaurant ever? Does it get better than their chips and salsa? I'm really not a chain person, at all, whatsoever, but Chili's is my exception. Dinner tonight at Chili's will keep me happy for days to come! (Not that I'm not already happy....it just takes it up one additional notch!)

Ok, time to see where in the 'Ville I can sign up for break dancing lessons!

Happy almost weekend!

Not America's Brightest.....

2008-06-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

So today at work we had even MORE excitement! It seems some genius criminal decided to break into one of our parking garages at work and break the windows of about a dozen cars to take stuff (electronics, mostly). What an idiot! Honestly, who even leaves good stuff in their car? You'd get 2 umbrellas and some pretty crap CDs out of my car. And if you took my factory radio you need to know the CD player takes forever for the dumb thing to even find a song.

I work for a very large company downtown, and generally I'd say it's very secure. No place is ever 100% secure, but it's hard to get tighter than where I work without fingerprinting and retinal scans - I have to scan my badge 4 times from pulling into the secure parking lot before I get to my desk. Even if you get in the garage you have to scan to get inside the stairwell area, then for your floor (off the stairs) and then once again for whatever area you work in. And there are cameras EVERYWHERE! When I went to pull into a spot in the area I generally park in, "my" spot was full of glass....which was odd. When I was walking in I asked the facility guy what was up and he said there had been vandalism overnight, and within a couple of hours word was spreading that every news crew in town was outside filming! (Truly it was a slow news day in Nashville....but another garage several blocks over was vandalized a few nights ago so it's now a 'trend'.) When I left for a lunchtime dentist appointment around noon one news crew was still there, and this afternoon each station had an article about it on their websites. Apparently he cut some wires and pried the garage doors up to get in. Honestly though....did this idiot not realize he was breaking into one of the largest companies in Nashville??? Bright, color video of him wandering around the garage is on every channel tonight, and one of my coworkers thought she saw him trying to get in and scoping out the place when she left yesterday - she reported it immediately around 5 yesterday, and her description matches this guy to a T. So it won't be long before some friend of his turns him in for $20 or whatever you get from Crimestoppers. One of my coworkers had the garage door come down on her car earlier this week as she was leaving, so this week it's been "all about the garage" at work.

So, other than that it's been a pretty quiet week. I've had so much going on at work (dentist, other stuff, birthday lunches, going away lunches) that I'll be able to make it to the gym once this week which is crazy! I've got a business trip coming up soon that I'm super excited about, so the next few weeks will have to be flexible which is just fine with me. I'd rather have a fun summer watching "So u think u can Dance" (which I should totally be on!) than worry about mileage and pace and all that stuff. My garden and life in general are just more interesting to me this summer than competitive running, recreational is A-ok with me.

Happy almost Thursday!!

Randomness

2008-06-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hmm......I don't really have much to say this morning but it's been a few days so I guess I should say something. It seems like I always have a lot to post about in the car, but by the time I get home or even get a chance to be near the computer I've completely forgotten it.

It's been a rather "tumultuous" week at work as a higher up got canned. It's one of those things that needed to be done, but that you're always still surprised about in the end. Except for my first job in public accounting I've never worked for a company that hasn't had layoffs or tried to consolidate functions between branches. (And honestly, I can't imagine a cpa firm ever having a layoff - the conditions at firms are such crap that turnover is their #1 issue. Of the 4 people I started with at the firm all of us were gone within the first year. It was pretty easy to find a job making more money and working less hours, why would you even want to do that????) I've been on both ends of the layoff, and neither side is that great to be on. When you're the one canned it's so....humiliating, and then when you're not the one you're just left wondering what else is going to happen...

The contractors are gone, thank goodness. Our house is a disaster in their wake and I'm going to spend a lot of today cleaning and dusting. For some reason, the a-holes opened up our bedroom door each and every day, so naturally when they were removing part of the ceiling in our foyer the massive amounts of drywall dust have penetrated every room in our house. Nice. Appreciate it....They did a great job building the stairs, but we won't ever be using them again due to some pretty serious "communication" issues. I should have subtracted from their payment the extra day of doggie daycare since they can't manage 8 hr workdays, my time dusting our bed and bath that shouldn't have evenbeen a factor, and the insane amounts of toilet paper they used in Brent's bathroom. But whatever, they're done and our house is our own again.

We've got a pretty low key weekend planned. Last night I was in the mood to try something new, and as we try to keep our money in our neighborhood as much as possible, we headed over to Mitchell's Delicatessen. It's in a little corner strip mall that's seen a lot of revitalization over the past couple of years and is really turning out to be cute little hot spot, with a coffe shop next door, a pizza joint that's been there for ages, another doggie daycare across the street, and a sushi bar on the way. It was hopping last night with lots of other young families and neighborhoodies. I had a really good roast beef and cheddar and B had a French Dip. They have a lot of more creative offerings on the menu, but I was in the mood for my classic go-to sandwich! Their special of the day was the "Jamie Lynn" a turkey sandwich with some type of pesto seasoning and something else I don't recall. They've also got lamb sandwiches as well as a lot of really unique offerings. My only complaint was the beverages were a little lacking. Z's Deli has some flavorful things and here you pretty much had your standard Cokes in a bottle, that really weren't all that great. Nothing in a plastic bottle stays cool for long in the South in late June, so fountain beverages would've at least been better. They've also got a little section of locally grown fruits and veggies as well as some high end cheeses you can pick up. We topped our night off by heading over to Marche for some dessert to go. Just like TiVo has changed our lives, Marche has changed our lives. We love their brunch but try not go too often (calories people). Before Marche there really wasn't anywhere we could run in on a Fri night and pick up some kick-a dessert to go. Last night we got a Strawberry Marscapone Cake and a Chocolate Banana Cake. To die for. They actually weren't made there, but were made by Provence (who seriously has the best desserts in town but no location in ENash.) They were both to die for. Can I say it again???

Anyway, this morning we took a walk down to the post office and the library to do some errands and thoroughly wiped Pippin out. It's been a bit cooler this week, but it seems the humidity is back this a.m. He made it about .75 of a mile before his wipeout phase where he tries to lie down in any shady or cool looking place. He took a long break on the new and very soft looking mat at the Lipstick, much to the amusement of the employee heading in to start their lunch service. Brent ended up having to carry him a few blocks otherwise we'd still be a few blocks from home. He's at such a level of spoiled that he'd really prefer being carried, or pushed in a stroller.

Ok, I guess I've procrastinated the insurmountable dusting task ahead......ugh!!! Happy Saturday!

More Moving and More Shaking

2008-06-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I can't believe it's already Sunday evening! I also can't believe I forgot to post yesterday. Yesterday was my 3 year blog-o-versary! Hard to believe, but totally true. I can't believe it's already been 3 years. My how time flies and things change!!! Anyway, like I said last year I don't know how long I'll keep this up, and in particular how long I'll keep it up here, but for now.....here's how the weekend has shaped up.

Friday Brent and I went to pick up Pippin from daycare together (I know, we're dorks). It ended up we were going to be home around the same time so I just waited outside and hopped in his car so Brent could see the daycare in full swing. This way we'd also be going into the house at the same time to see how far the contractors got. The original estimate was 3 days, which would've put them done on Friday so we knew they'd be close. It was so exciting to walk in and see a staircase stretching all the way upstairs!!! It's so pimp!! I'll post pics below. They have a few more things to do tomorrow, but then their piece is finished. I guess I should clarify - THEY'LL be done tomorrow, we still have a lot to do! We're having all the framing done, and will do all the trim and drywall ourselves. The math and sheer "architecture" as well as safety and bracing was just over our heads, and the fee for having this done seemed very reasonable to us - which is pretty rare! The other two things we had them quote on made us laugh, so we haven't lost our spirit - we just know our limits. Anyway, we were so tickled with it and took many trips up and down, up and down. Except Pippin. He's scared of the stairs and won't go past the second step. He doesn't like that the "kickplate" part is still open, he doesn't like open stairs - like tall decks, etc. Once they're finished he won't mind it though.

Friday night we just relaxed and watched TV, and did a little cleaning inside. They had to cut out quite a bit of ceiling for the stairwell and the dust was NUTS. We had covered a lot of the furniture, but WOW. Pippin went to bed at 6 - right after eating dinner. He was out all night, daycare WEARS HIM OUT! Saturday we all went for a walk over to a friend's yard sale. The on and off rain had really hurt the sale, and not long after we got there we had to take shelter on their porch for a while during a big shower. It was still fun, we got to hear all about the adventures her hubby and another friend were having at Bonnaroo. After lunch we did some salvage shopping. We really wanted to find some reclaimed pieces to finish the stairwell. There's an awesome salvage shop a few miles away, and we were able to find a circa-1910's banister & 2 matching posts. Perfect!! They need stripping before we can stain them, but they fit perfectly and are going to be so beautiful! We also got a door that matches the ones we have in our house for the hall closet under the stairs. It's been in a fire and had some soot on it, but Brent's already sanded it and primed it, and it looks good as new. We also got several new doorhandles and hardware that match our house. We LOVE that place. They had quite a few spindles but we need to figure out how many we need and the height before we buy them. Their prices were great and when we got home we had a check in the mail from our escrow company (what we've had to pay in this year was over the threshold for overage for taxes/insurance) equal to almost what we'd spent. I love days like that!!!

We also did some shopping last night, and have spent most all of the afternoon today working in the yard. Our yard was "behind" about 3 mows. It needed a mow the day the roofers started early - so we were behind to start with. Fast forward nearly 2 weeks of equipment being in our yard and it was a mess. I had thought about calling Codes on myself, ugh! But now our yard is nicely mowed, all the pots, flowers and furniture is back on the deck and porch and it's back to nice and neat. And we even had time to take a trip to Sonic for some well deserved ice cream.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have a fabulous week!

Here are some pics of the construction:

This is the foyer before, with all the furniture we had in there removed.

Here's the horrible spiral before. Just try taking boxes and boxes of Christmas decs, furniture, etc up and down that thing.

And now - a fab new winding staircase! It's hard to really get it all in pics. It starts under the front window, goes up to a landing and then winds to go up to the 2nd floor.

More of the "up" piece, plus the great chair we got for $10 at the yard sale yesterday - it's got great bones but just needs reupholstering. Brent's standing inside the new hall closet here.

The view from the top - you can get a good view of the "wind" from this pic.

Here's one of the reclaimed posts we bought. It's got great carving details on it and is going to look so good cleaned up!

This is how far Pippin is willing to go on the new stairs.

But he's certainly finding his own ways to enjoy it.....

And here's Pippin after a long day at daycare, when you can pretty much do whatever you want to him with no complaints!

Moving and Shaking!

2008-06-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Man, what a week! The new roof is done, yay! They finished sometime yesterday, new gutters, replaced the old skylights, and the works! It looks great, I'll paste a slideshow below of all the work. Those guys worked constantly from Tuesday of last week through yesterday, every day except Sunday. And mercifully they didn't start Saturday until 8:30 (they had been starting around 6:45-7:00 every morning). It rained this afternoon and the new gutters worked beautifully. I don't know if it leaked in the attic since the contractors removed our inside metal staircase yesterday and we don't have any way to get into our upstairs! They chopped the old spiral up into several pieces and chucked it in our front yard and started building the new, NORMAL, staircase. They got up to about the first landing done today, so it will be super exciting to come home tomorrow, because they should be up through the ceiling to the second story. Good times!!

And to continue the ramble that is this post, while the contractors are working inside Pippin is loving life - and going to daycare everyday. We went last weekend for an "evaluation" and to meet with the owner. The whole thing made us very nervous, we're not used to leaving Pippin in open environments because he is WILD. But, there's really not much else we could do while people were inside working on things. If we crated him he'd go crazy with all the hammering and sawing and it's just not good for him. Clearly I shouldn't have been worried because the boy is LOVING it. Yesterday when I went to pick him up he was chilling right next to a "fuzzy" little dog and they were so cute. Just sitting there. Quietly. Very unlike Pippin. And today he nearly choked himself to death pulling me up the stairs to get inside the daycare and he walked in like he owned it. Today he was in a big playroom with several other dogs and no one was in line in front of me so I didn't get to sneak a peak at how he was doing. But let's just say he comes home EXHAUSTED every day. Last night he was out for good at 8 pm - tonight he was out at SEVEN! The contractors should be done in just a couple of days (we're doing the finishing, they're just framing) but I'll probably start taking him one day a week because I think it's really helping him be a better socializer.

In other news, Nashville is SO happening!! Last week CMA-fest, this weekend Bonnaroo! This season of Next Design Star was shot here (I need to find THEM, bring them HERE, make them finish this house!!!). Tonight's Last Comic Standing showed Nashville, but none of the clips of me (boo!) and of course Nashville Star is going on right now!! It's a good time to live in the 'Ville! Bonnaroo won't affect us this weekend, they're all inside the sight south of town and set for a weekend of festivities. Brent saw a ton of campers and out of staters headed that way on his commute to work today. We have a couple of friends going so it'll be fun to hear all their stories, there's going to be some great music there this weekend.

Have a great weekend!!

When you can't beat them...

2008-06-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

You join them and take their picture for all the planet to enjoy!

Friends, this is Nashville's version of "freak week". (To me freak week was always that week in August where all the Elvis crazies poured into my forever and always dear hometown (Memphis) and cried and wept and gnashed teeth over his passing. Now living in Nashville freak week is this particular week in June when all the country loving people pour into town and profess their love for each and every country singer. One in particular has left love notes for Rodney Atkins in chalk ALL over downtown.)

In a lot of ways CMAfest is actually pretty cool. For some certain $$ amount fans can spend hours in line every day and get autographs, pics, etc of pretty much each and every major (and minor) country artist. There's several stages around downtown with people performing all day and then at night the biggest of the big perform downtown at the football stadium. I can't think of any other festival/genre where you can get THAT much exposure to your idols. Tonight's concert has Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, and my girl Ashton Shepherd (along with a lot of other people). Tomorrow my man Trace Adkins is on, along with Kenny Rogers and a bunch of other people.

I skipped the gym yesterday and spent my lunch hour walking around the free portions of the festival. It was freaking 90 degrees at lunch, and so insanely hot. I did score lots of free sunscreen packets and a fan.

Here's my pictorial narration of the (free) parts of what I've seen this week:

It's really, really hard to describe how long the lines are. They start outside the convention center and then wrap literally all the way around the city block. Here's just part of the line for people to get inside to wait in line for autographs. Keep in mind it was over 90 degrees!!

Waiting in line for hours wouldn't be so bad if you were behind this guy, I bet he was entertaining!!

Near the Country Music Hall of Fame there's a little park they've turned into a kid area. There was inflatable stuff, coloring areas, game for kids to play and this SCARY Ronald McDonald blow up!!!

I also happened upon the Music City Walk of Fame. Brent and I have gone on runs specifically looking for it on the immediate block of the Hall of Fame, on Music Row, etc and never found it. Now I know it's the cut across sidewalk within this little park.

For our usual 3pm walk my coworker and I walked back down to soak up more sights and free sounds. AND, we ran into the Naked Cowboy, all the way from NYC! I wonder what he wears at the airport???

We also saw this guy, right outside the convention center with a line of people getting his autograph. Does anyone know who he is????

The total downside to this is the insane traffic jam caused by so many tourists. I will confess I have honked at many of them this week, and suggested they return to "fill in the blank state". My 3 mile commute took me 45 minutes yesterday afternoon thanks to this mess.

For a few blocks I was behind the "George Strait" truck who was tossing Tshirts out to people on 2nd.

Once he turned to do another lap of downtown I got stuck behind two horse policemen (this picture if after I got around them). The first sign I was about to approach horses was the insane quantity of poo in the roads. I was very thankful my windows were rolled up....

But the traffic was no better next to the football stadium for the music going on there...

Oh well, no biggie I guess. As someone whose income comes from retail, and retail is really all about people out spending money, and I'm sure some of these people will spend money at our area stores and thus help our stores and keep food on my table, pack 'em in! Pack 'em double wide!! I didn't hear the fireworks last night (days of roofers banging up above will WEAR YOU OUT) but it was cool to hear the fighter jets fly overhead as the concert started last night, and then we saw them tonight as we were heading out to dinner about the time it started. I will be avoiding downtown all weekend though!!!

The roof should be done on Tuesday. They have a few more things to do tomorrow, and then Tuesday is gutter day and a few other things that a different crew do. It's looking great and those guys have worked SO HARD. Tues 7 am to 5 pm, Wed 6:40 am to 8 pm and yesterday from 7 am to 7:30 pm!! I can't imagine, and they hardly take breaks at all.

Alrighty, have a great weekend everyone!!!

And so it begins....

2008-06-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

June has gotten off to QUITE the start. The roofers called Monday morning to let us know they were outside our house to deliver shingles and drop off the dump trailer, and could they take down parts of our white picket fence. Sigh. It's a good thing landscaping is our NEXT project because our front yard is pretty well demolished from pallets of shingles, supplies, trailer and the layers of shingles tossed off so far.

They got here at 7 am this morning, just as I was leaving for work. Brent stayed in case there was any trouble once they started pulling stuff off (as far as wood damage underneath). So far, so good, we've had very few surprises. It appears there were 4 layers of shingles instead of 3. They spent today doing the front side up to and including installing the new skylights. There's still the other side of the front, the middle dip and rise to the back peak, and then the back side of the roof. They said they'll be here two more days. The crew is about 7 guys and it's amazing how much they got accomplished today, in 92-93+ heat. It's insane here, already. Yesterday it was 90 at 5 pm when I was on my way home!!

Pippin's not a huge fan of the noise. He's thrown up once, is pretty frantic, and barks at the ceiling. Tonight around 8:30 he "excused himself" and has gone and gotten in his big bed in our bedroom. He hates not having his front fence to run around and greet people.

Anyway, here's some pics from the excitement:

Front view: Taking off shingles......

Big mess of shingles:

In this one they've also removed the old skylight on the left side & most of it's down to the slats

New roof going in on the right side, new skylights dropped in on the left side!

New roof!

Front side, new roof!!

Basically they've finished most of the parts you see from the street! Good times!!

Judas Rocks

2008-05-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Not too much to report around here about last week. They FINALLY got the A/C fixed at work on Friday, thank goodness! It was so hot Thurs afternoon that someone turned the lights off and yelled that if anyone had a problem with it they could get up and turn them back on. I rather like it, but it did contribute to that general sleepiness I already had from the heat.

Other than that it's been a plain old week of work, working out, and working around the house. The current project here is building the closet for the front den that we're in the process of converting to a bedroom. Brent got it pretty much framed up today, which is super exciting. And all the lumber that's been in our front room is now gone, yeah!! Our new roof should be sometime this upcoming week, although we don't have a date so it's likely it could be shoved. And we've picked a contractor for removing the old spiral staircase and building a kick-a new winding staircase in its place. He's coming over Tuesday to walk through his plans, and it sounds like he's at a great place in-between jobs to get started soon, so maybe in a couple of months we'll be through all the major interior stuff!! Our landscaping plans for the back will take a while, but we know what we want and that's half the battle. Last night I had the most terrible dream. I had a nightmare that we sold our house and moved somewhere in Georgia, to a town we've never heard of. As we were moving in I was going through the house saying "we're going to have to pull up this carpet and put down hardwoods" and in the kitchen "this layout is terrible, we're going to have to get rid of this linoleum, rearrange everything, and get brand new appliances." Then when I got to the backyard I had a meltdown. It was a chainlink fence, not terribly secure, and I said "We have to pull this down and build a new fence". For some reason we also had two dogs, a little Jack Russell and Pippin. At this point I had a meltdown and laid down on the ground and started crying that there was just no way I could go through remodeling a kitchen or building a fence again. And then I started begging Brent to see if we could go back and get our old house back. Some people have nightmares about criminals....me, I have nightmares about being back at the beginning of a major remodel.

Last night we went to see Jesus Christ Superstar at TPAC as part of the Broadway Series in Nashville. As part of our "we need to see things that come here more" initiative I bought us nice seats for this, and cheap seats for Rent that came a few months ago. All in all, it just wasn't our favorite. The guy that played Judas was awesome (he's the lead singer of Living Colour - aka the group that sings Cult of Personality), but Jesus. Well, Jesus was not so great. (That's weird to type.) He's apparently quite famous for playing this role....but his voice was one of those "let loose and roll" things and it just made us both cringe. We may be alone in it, from the applause he got and how the lady next to me was BAWLING crying. But I am glad we saw it and it was a fun night. There are some great shows coming in the upcoming season, so I'm really looking forward to next year's season as well (Avenue Q is coming!). Also, Wicked is coming in the Fall of 09 so that's super exciting.

Tomorrow we're going over to a friend's house for some dinner and to hang out, so we that'll be fun. We haven't seen them in a couple of months, even though she and I chat via email at work pretty often. Ok, Brent's all showered up so it's time to head out for some errands and dinner!

It's Getting Hot in Here....

2008-05-28T18:27:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope you all had great Mem Day weekends. We had a nice one, with a good mix of work and fun. We had some friends over Friday night to play some Wii and eat some fajitas. I loooove anything spicy and I just love that recipe. Give it a good couple of hours to marinade and you're good to go. Naturally I got my booty beaten in Mario Kart by people who have never even played it before.

Saturday we worked in the yard and actually washed and vacuumed out our cars! We truly are not car people, the way cars get beaten and banged up I don't see the point in having something nice or fancy. So, we're really not that big into washing them constantly, but WOW! they look nice right now!

Sunday was more of the same and we had T & N over for dinner. I made some spinach enchiladas and horrible refried beans. Maybe I'm just an idiot, maybe it's a bad recipe, but next time I will open a can! On the enchiladas, I'd grate the cheese instead of cubing next time, and use more jack instead of Parmeson on top and prob use flour tortillas since I prefer them to corn.

Our plan Monday was to get some things done (Brent's working on the closet for the den we've converted to a bedroom) and hit the pool in the afternoon. So it started pouring around noon and continued the rest of the day!! That killed all the plans since we can't use the sander, cutters, paint, etc outside. So we watched TV, napped and relaxed. I can't complain about that...

Then it's been back to work where the freaking AC is broken!! UGH! It's impossible to think and by the end of the day we are all so wilted. It's nuts. And it's prob going to be like that tomorrow, too! After some rain today it was actually cooler outside than inside.

And Brent surprised me with a Wii Fit! He had to go through a bit to get it, but finally found me one! I can't see it being a fitness revolution that's going to reverse obese America, but it is fun and some of the games do make you break an ever so slight sweat. It even has running! We haven't totally gotten it all figured out yet, but it's crazy how it can detect your movements.

On the down side, we got a call Monday that our next door neighbor had a stroke down in Miami (he was visiting friends for a week). He's been up and down, but right now he's back in ICU (he keeps having strokes/seizures) and they can't get his blood pressure regulated. He has no insurance, or money, so we're really worried about the level of care he'll get when (if) he's able to be moved back to Nashville. He's the best neighbor ever, and we just hate this. He's still very touch and go right now, and it seems like he's going to have some paralysis. He's only 52, but his health is just so poor. He had a heart attack a few years ago, and he's always having some sort of medical problem he can't get taken care of because of his lack of insurance. It's just so upsetting, and Pippin is really missing his buddy. (They look at each other through the window of "Pippin's" room. M will wave at him, and the last time I talked to M I was looking for Pippin - I was working in the yard and couldn't see him, M was sitting outside on his porch and Pippin had gone to that side of our yard to sit and stare at him from our side.) Anyway, we're hoping for good news tomorrow, today was slightly promising.

Ok, it's time for my turn to get WiiFit. I think one day it's going to tell me it's surprising I can even walk without running into things (which.....I do trip a lot.)

The Vacay Report!

2008-05-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a great Memorial Day weekend!! We're having quite possibly the best Mem Day weekend ever, so don't even try to compete. Just kidding, but we are having a great weekend and even though it's insanely effing hot out there already there's just something so wonderful about the start to summer!! I am about to wet myself I am so excited about the outdoor pools opening tomorrow at the Y! Seriously, at our little dinner party Friday night at around 8 pm it was still in the 80's and I got bit by my first 'skeeter of the season.

But here it is, some pics (last) and highlights of our recent trip to Wisconsin, Michigan (UP) & Iowa!

We flew in Thurs night and landed around 9:15. It was a great flight and Midwest was a wonderful airlines. Our stewardness was super nice, and came back a second time handing out extra choc chip cookies (they bake them on the planes....they're delish, just like Doubletree.)

Friday morning we went to the Milwaukee Zoo, which was FULL of school kids on end of year trips. It was an OK zoo, not the best we've ever been to. A lot of the animals live in glass cages, not the more open air type environments you see now. I guess that has a lot to do with the weather in Wisconsin. After the Zoo we did the Miller tour, which was also pretty fun. We love factory tours and this one was pretty ok, it wasn't as detailed as Coors or Ben & Jerry's, but still fun. From there we headed to the Milwaukee Museum of Art. They have a GREAT museum. It's so gorgeous, and certainly one of the most unique buildings I've ever seen. Their collection is a great size and spans lots of various time periods. I prefer the Van Gogh-Monet-Renoir type paintings and then the more modern (but not super modern) type works of Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and things of that time period. (The Museum of Modern Art in NYC is my fave!) The collection was huge there and I'm really glad we went. By this point we were starved and we headed over to a cute restaurant on Lake Michigan. It was about 3:30 and they were only serving appetizers, which was fine because we wanted a big dinner anyway. We had some seriously great shrimp, beef kabobs, and chicken skewers wrapped in bacon. The shrimp was coated in some panko and honey and was TO DIE FOR. From there we checked into our hotel, the InterContinental. I had booked us a room with a river view and it was just gorgeous. The whole place was great and other than the stupid $20 a day parking fee it was perfect. We had dinner at a brewery (is there anywhere else to eat in WI??) and walked around downtown enjoying the night until fairly late. Their downtown really isn't bumping at night, but it felt so safe. There wasn't a single homeless person out harassing people or a lowrider blaring rap to be found.

On Saturday we had a great morning run from our hotel down to the lakefront. I just love the lakefront running paths of places like Chicago and Milwaukee. We prob ran around 5 total miles, just sightseeing and enjoying the nice, completely unhumid morning air. Once we got back we cleaned up and headed towards Sheboygan. My travel books had declared Sheboygan the Bratwurst capital of the world and we weren't going to miss that! We parked by their riverfront but could only find pubs and seafood restaurants, no brats. We ended up asking a woman walking her dog where to eat, and she sent us to the Charcoal Inn. WOW, it was SO GOOD! My brat was just perfect. It's just a tiny littler diner but we were both so happy with our food and voted it the best place we ate the whole trip.

From there we headed to Green Bay to see where the Packers play. We don't care about football, but the Packers Stadium is sort of one of those legendary places you just want to see. We were pretty surprised when we pulled in and saw a lot of cars. And a Finish Line. When we walked into the atrium we found it insanely ironic that their Marathon expo was taking place, and on Sunday the Green Bay Marathon would be ending there. Too funny!! We walked around, bought some souvenirs and headed on our way. We spent the rest of the day doing some hiking in White Dunes State Park before we got a room about 4 miles from the Michigan border.

Sunday we drove around the Upper Peninsula a little before heading back across the state and down. It was a LONG day of driving. And a CHILLY day! Most of the day the temps were in the upper 40's/low 50's which is something we moved away from a long time ago here! We finally made it to Madison and we spent some time walking around downtown. It's such a cute little city and seems so nice. Their state capital building is ENORMOUS. It's almost as tall as the DC capital, they had planned to make it larger but DC made them change their plans. We could see it from 5 miles away when we got off the interstate. We walked around the capital for a while and down to Monona Terrace to enjoy the view of the Lake.

We spent Sunday night at the House on the Rock Inn in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. As we were picking a place to stay, I read about the Don Q Inn in one of my books. All the descriptions of their "fantasuites" sounded interesting, and it sounded like a quirky, fun place to stay. And since Brent's birthday would be the following day I didn't mind a splurge on a room. We pulled up and there were about 3 cars in the parking lot. We walked in to ask about the room prices and while Brent was talking to her about prices I saw the binder of actual room pics. I started looking through them and realized the rooms were what I would call "ick" and it looked like 1977 threw up all over them. And a lot of them had these large cheese tubs for bathtubs. Vomit. Vomit. Vomit. I was able to get Brent to start looking at the pics and we told her we'd think about it. Ick. Ick. Ick. Another massive selling point (according to the girl at the desk) is that "even though all the fantasuites are smoking no one stays in them much so they really don't smell". Nice.

So, we drove across the street to the House on the Rock Inn (see above link). The outside looks super nice. The front desk girl there told us it was a 4 star hotel. The lobby was nice. The outside was nice. So we believed her and ended up with a fab 1970's room. Yeah, obviously the definition of "4-star" for me is pretty different. Anyway we pretty much just came there to sleep so it wasn't a big deal. We did go down to the MASSIVE pool later that night. It had this huge kids pool with slides and an enormous fish that spews water. After doing some laps in the adult pool we headed to the kiddie pool, where I promptly learned that adults scrape their ass on the concrete floor of kiddie water slides. 6 inches of water is nowhere near enough water padding for me. Ouch.

Monday was a GREAT day. We headed over to Iowa and spent the morning exploring Dubuque. It's a gorgeous town on the Mississippi River. We walked around their famous courthouse (it's been in several movies), explored a park on the River and then road the scariest cable car in the world. It's the steepest one in the US, built in the 1880's (or maybe 1890's). I'm telling you, it was SCARY! The view from the top was great but getting there took me holding on for dear life. We also did some shopping and eating there before heading out to Monroe, WI, home of CHEESE!!! I did some serious cheese shopping, their prices were SO GREAT! Literally they distribute to the grocery stores I shop at, but the price was half there as what I normally pay. I recognized the wrapper and the lady there confirmed they do distribute to the grocery chains. I bought a block of cheese for $4.71 and last night at the grocery I looked at it there - $8! For the same exact thing!! So I stocked up and we got a mail order form, too. After filling up on cheese we headed to New Glarus, to enjoy the Swiss area. It was so cute and we got some great deals on some small antiques.

We spent our last night in Racine, on the coast of Lake Michigan once again. We ate b-day dinner at a pub there and then grabbed a kringle on our way to the airport. It was 50-something we we left Milwaukee and 81 when we landed here! Talk about a temp change...

Anyway, we had a great trip and it's funny how much Wisconsin reminded us of Tennessee. Lots of farmlands and farms, cows, rolling hills. It was just a lot colder!! It was so strange to see their trees just beginning to have leaves, and their tulips still in bloom!

I narrowed down our 2,000 pics to about a 75 pic slideshow so enjoy!!!! (You have to click on it to get the descriptions I put with it, otherwise some of them make no sense!!)

Back!

2008-05-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!! It's back to normal around here, boo! Vacation was great and I'm working on sorting through the nearly 2,000 vacay pics we took to narrow down a few to throw into a slide show. Wisconsin was great, and so was the upper peninsula of Michigan and also the Eastern part of Iowa. It was CHILLY though! The first two days were perfect in the lower 70's, but then a cold front came through and it was in the upper 40's where we were most of Sunday and then into the 50's the rest of our time there. That doesn't sound cold, but when we landed here Tuesday afternoon it was 81! So we've already moved well into early summer. (And I always know it's summer when our neighbor's dog gets his summer haircut! I saw him today all shaved off and it just makes me chuckle!! And Pippin's mad at me now because I just gave him a bath....he has it so easy!)

We bought a TON of cheese and were able to keep it cool and fly it back in our suitcases. We ate our way across the state and had a great time. I'm now determined I need to learn to smoke my own sausages. I figure that's an easier task to take on than buying a cow and making my own cheese, or figuring out how to brew my own beer. I loved all the German/Swiss influences in so many of the towns, and there were so many beautiful Victorian homes built around the same time as ours.

My garden (and yard!) grew a ton while we were gone. I can't wait for some veggies! My new blackberry bush is starting to produce some fruit, so that's pretty exciting! The outdoor pool at the Y opens on Monday and I can't wait. We don't have a ton planned this weekend, just some things around the house and we're having some people over tomorrow night to play Mario Kart Wii, which I suck at and of course Brent is great at it. I really, really want the Wii Fit. That looks like so much fun too!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

$60 worth of cheese...

2008-05-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

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Greetings from Dodgeville, WI!

2008-05-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Our bellies are insanely stuffed with cheese and beer cheese soup and brats and sausages and fish fries and kringles and absolutely everything in the world. We've been on a culinary tour through Milwaukee and Sheboygan and Green Bay and Door County and then the Upper P of Michigan before heading back through the northern woods part of Wisconsin and through Madison today until we crashed here less than an hour from Iowa. Tomorrow it's a sampling of Iowa and then through some various Swiss/German villages, a cheesemaking town and back to Milwaukee where we fly out Tues afternoon. It's been quite the fun trip and tonight we're staying at a "4-star" hotel that's well......not what I would call 4 star but it does having a kick a indoor pool with a GIANT fish that we're about to explore and hopefully burn off a few of the massive calories we've consumed on this trip. Loads and loads of pics to come when we're back in the land of country music. Although.....we've heard and seen a lot of country music and people up here, and TWICE I've gotten to sing along to my fave Ashton Shepherd song about coolers slushing on the radio.

But for now know that we're living it up in Brew Country and have a wonderful view of a full moon over Wisconsin farmlands on the eve of Brent's b-day!

And yeah, you probably saw this one coming. Cheers!

We're in.....

2008-05-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

Milwaukee!

Land of cheese and brats and beer and people who say 'ey' and give us free breakfasts because we are so cute with our little Southern accents and apparently say "Wesconsin" instead of however-it-is you're supposed to say it. SCORE!

And Brent didn't know a thing until the security guy (who was a redneck who took his job WAY seriously) said "Going to Milwaukee, son?"

So anyway, we're off to explore Milwaukee today before we head out for Greenbay, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and then back down to Madison and a little bit of Iowa!

TGIF!

If Only I Were a 10-yr old girl

2008-05-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hiya!!! In just around 48 hours we'll be landing in our super secret vacation destination! Well, I can't exactly say it's super secret. I think I'm up to around 2-3 dozen people who know, between relatives, neighbors, coworkers of mine and even one of Brent's. I've got a few rooms booked now, and have even shown him pictures of a couple of views from the room, in my attempt to totally throw him off. I'm printing various maps off tonight, and then tomorrow night it's final packing. When Pippin sees a suitcase he becomes crazy glue - the boy does NOT want to be left behind. He doesn't mind going to the kennel, in fact he LOVES it, but what he does NOT want to happen is to miss out on some excitement and suitcases mean excitement. Actually, his head is on the laptop right now and my arm is at a wicked angle right now just to type, so I guess he's pretty much always crazy glue.

So far this week has been pretty good! We had a nice and relaxing Sunday here, although it was insanely windy and chilly due to the storms that came through Saturday night. We did make time to get some groceries at Whole Foods. We got all sorts of yummy vegetables for the week. I was feeling crazy so I even got a thing of brussel sprouts. I can't even remember the last time I had them, but we tried them this way and they were pretty good. Not my fave vegetable but they're really not such a big deal. The breading really adds a nice crispness to them. We paired it with some grilled chicken and some fantastic mashed sweet potatoes, made with good ole Tennesee Jack Daniels. Tonight we tried a new way of cooking zucchini - normally we saute it with a little EVOO, but this time we made little zucchini cakes. They were SO good. They were very easy to make, and my zucchinis grated right up with my Microplane. They reminded me a lot of potato latkes.

Anyway, today on my way to work outside a particular historic hotel I pass every day I noticed several large lights and video equipment. There were also several security guards around, and I figured it was just another country music video shoot, not really an odd or unusual sight. Later in the day I went for a walk with a coworker running some errands. My building is about 5 blocks from the hotel, but as close as two blocks to work the public parking lots were absolutely full of campers, big trucks, signs about catering, and just a ton of production equipment. As we got closer to the library several blocks were shut off with filming equipment and were packed with security and lots of crews...We speculated who it might be and figured with our luck it would just be the governor filming some sort of "don't drink after prom" video. But we did decide to walk back on the other side of it on our return trip, in case we did see someone famous. As we headed back through I spotted a security guard outside a side entrance to the hotel, so as we walked by I asked him if they were shooting a music video. At first he didn't want to talk about it, then he said "no......it's a movie." Then he said "Think about what movie might be filming." Well, honestly I don't keep up with all that stuff and totally drew a blank. When we asked if it was someone famous he said "Oh yeah." So that got our interest.....We asked him who and he said he couldn't tell. Then he said "Think Cyrus." Ok, so that totally gave it away. I knew Miley Cyrus was filming a new Hannah Montana movie because they've had casting auditions for extras for several weeks now. So we asked him if she might be leaving soon, and he said she's spent all day inside the hotel, and only came outside to arrive/leave. He also told us she shows up around 10 am, and that she's been very nice to everyone. About that time someone buzzed his earpiece and he basically told us we were being watched and should probably go. As if! He also told us not to tell any paparazzi, but I'm figuring the paps know her every move these days anyway. So yeah, that was my excitement of the day, and sadly I don't care a thing about Hannah Montana and it would have been just as exciting if it was the governor. He did say they'll be filming there for 3 weeks, so maybe at some point I will be able to snap a pic of her and sell it for millions.

Ok, time to go and check all the stuff I've printed for our trip! Have a great Wednesday everyone!

SuPeR SeCrEt StUfF

2008-05-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

What a long and short week, just pure insanity!! This week at work we had consultants come in. It's not that I don't like consultants, it's just that I don't trust them. At all. Anytime someone wants to know more about how you do your job and what you do and throw in all those fab buzz words like "oh my, that sounds SO manual", and "oh dear, that must be SO time consuming" all I hear is "your company is paying me a million dollars to basically type up all the dysfunctional crap you all already know and then I'm going to automate your job so all of you can be eliminated and then they can keep us on retainer indefinitely because none of this is going to work even remotely like we just promised you". Cynical, I know, but I've been there done that a million times. So, my week was full of 4 hour meetings. I was stuck in 5 of them, so roughly 20 hours of my week was spent sitting in a room being peppered with free soft drinks. One of my coworkers was stuck in 6, so life coulda been worse and a few were only stuck in 1, so it also could've been better. Throw sucky recessions that make retail blow in and it was just a bit of an ugly, stressful week. One night I was so pitifully tired that we took Pippin on a ride around the neighborhood instead of his usual walk. If that's not "lazy American" then I don't know what is.

As a result of too much work and too little time I only got in 2 of my usual 4 lunch-time workouts. One of them was a run that I struggled through but finished, and then for my other one I went with swimming. I should've run but my knee is bothering me a bit and I really wanted to hit the pool. I'm still crazy slow but my main problem is just total boredom in the pool. It's just back and forth, back and forth. Over and over. I think I may start timing myself and maybe that will make it more interesting. Any suggestions to fight pool boredom would be great!!!

SO, the big news is that in just barely over a week Brent will be 31! And this year, instead of torturing him with projects, I am going to whisk him away to.......well, it's a surrr-prise. For him anyway. I can think of at least a dozen people who know where we're going. I've given him a few hints, like our plane leaves here at 7:55 and lands at 9:20 (nonstop flight), it's a state we haven't been before and best case we'll see 3 states we haven't seen. I've told him there are no bloggers I know there, but there are bloggers in nearby states. It's pretty stinking hard keeping it a secret, sometimes when I'm reading through the books I'll see something really exciting and just sort of squeal but I can't share what's so exciting. We leave Thurs night and come back Tuesday and I just can't wait!!! I've got to go back and count, but I think we only have 12-13 states left that we haven't been to, so we're closing in on 40! I know I'll never do a marathon in all 50, but I definitely want to see all 50 together. Speaking of, someone at work told me about this website where some guys drove nonstop and were able to drive through all 48 cont states in something like 4 days. Very interesting.

And tonight I leave you with the excitement only known as Pippin, who is absolutely dead to the world asleep after a day at Brent's family where he got to visit with both grandparents (my parents and Brents) and half of his nieces and nephews as well as lots of other family members. I'm pretty sure he's going to be sound asleep until Monday and he's gotten some sort of belly rash from rolling in their yard or something. Here he is in more awake times, loving the excitement of having treats mailed to him from Rich in Texas. He is one spoiled dog!!!

He has no idea what excitement is about to happen:

Once the envelope was open he knew there were some fresh treats and toys in there!!

This would be the point where he starts pummeling me to have a doggie cookie:

His eyes are screaming happiness! And I'm telling you, they looked and smelled so good I thought about eating one. It's crazy what the doggie bakeries can do!

Have a great night and happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!!!

Grilled Goodness....

2008-05-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm.....I love these late spring days when it's nice and warm and the back door stays open absolutely all day long and you can't even fathom cooking something that's not on the grill and you have just as much mud stuck between your toes and under your fingernails as you did when you were 10 years old. Pure heaven.

We've had a wonderful extended weekend here in Dixie, where apparently everyone moves slower or something. I can't imagine moving any faster, but whatever. We had taken off Friday with the plans of heading to Cincy to cheer for my brother in the Flying Pig half, his second half M. He did it last year, but we were knee deep in kitchen reno and under some massive install deadlines. So, 500 years ago I had told him we'd come and be his cheerleaders and when I talked to him last Sunday I re-confirmed that. Then Thurs night, right before The Office, he told me he had several other families (aka ppl with lots of kids) also coming to stay with them to run the race. Umm.....huh?? So we talked about it and decided we'd come and visit in early June when we could spend more time with them, and this way he could spend more time with his friends that he doesn't get to see very often. It was a win-win, we have so much going on in May that we really did need some extra weekend time here to finish a few things up and also get some rest. And bless that dog Pippin because he actually let me sleep until around 8:30 for a few mornings instead of waking me up at 6 so he can come and get in the bed. Excellent. And our travel plans being canceled meant we could go over to Tom and Nicole's last night for some fresh, homemade pizza. I'm pretty sure Brent may have eaten an entire pizza on his own, so obviously it was good and fun to hang out with them again!!

Brent's pretty much got all the new baseboards and quarter-round finished up in our living room/hallway/front room and they look SO nice. I've done some of the painting/drywalling on that stuff, but have mostly been getting my gardens planted and in shape. I am such a garden whore. I.can't.stop.buying.plants. I started a lot of seedlings, that have been pretty bruised up by our massive downpours lately. So then I plant more seeds. And then I buy more plants to supplement, that will mature sooner than seedlings. And then I need some rosebushes because I really miss my gardens that I had at the old house. So in the last 3 weeks I've bought 4 new rosebushes. And since we'll be (hopefully) getting a new roof in the next few weeks I can't do any plantings right around the house that might be damaged by three old layers being tossed off, so everything is being planted pretty much all over the place. And then according to Brent, my latest garden expansion completely disregarded his drawn up landscape plan for the backyard! Ha! But he won't be mad when we have home grown sweet potatoes, for sure!! So anyway, I've got to stop before our backyard is completely dug up and planted with random things. But I did get to use some fresh parsley and basil from my herb garden tonight which was DIVINE.

Speaking of , tonight I made the most heavenly cedar plank salmon. So.stinking.good. We had bought some cedar planks last summer and just never used them, it seemed like I always forgot or didn't have the time to soak the planks. Yesterday at Costco we bought the most massive, delicious cut of salmon so today I planned ahead and soaked those puppies for 5 hours (they still caught on fire a little). This recipe was divine. I mean, anything with Jack Daniels and maple syrup is going to be good, right??? I added more seasoning to my fish - I added some fresh thyme and also some Emeril's Essence since it basically has all the flavoring you'd want on something anyway. And I also added some fresh basil to it at the end. But WOW, the smoky flavor was so good and I really hope I smelled up the neighborhood. We're always fans of fresh fish/salmon, but the cedar really gave it some good depth.

And thanks to spending 90% of the weekend outside my eyes are scratchy and I've spent most of today sneezing. Ugh. My mom has bad allergies and apparently Pippin has "inherited" it from me, too. We went to the veterinary ophthalmologist Thursday afternoon. He confirmed Pippin's spot is corneal degeneration, and all we really need to do is watch it and make sure it doesn't get worse. It prob won't change, and most likely won't affect his vision or get worse. I guess in an effort to give us our money's worth (which let me tell you, it would have taken a LOT to do) he did a big exam of Pippin's eyes, using all sorts of the same equipment a human eye doc uses. They did tear tests, glaucoma tests, shined various lights and used numerous instruments in his eyes, and did all sorts of poking and prodding on him. Basically everything but having him read T-R-E-A-T-S off an eye chart. According to the doc, Pippin has an excessive quantity of eyelashes. And a few of these eyelashes (approximately 4 in total) don't curve properly and can sort of scratch his eye when he blinks. So we need to be very aware of his moisture level in order to prevent his eyes from getting too dry and the eyelashes causing him discomfort. As a result we now have prescription eyedrops to put in his eyes every day for moisture. Additionally, Pippin appears to have seasonal allergies. The doc saw a little too much redness in his eyes and we now have a prescription ointment to apply every other day for allergies. Yeahhhhhhh. Although, Pippin was pretty thrilled when we got home to have a package from a blogging buddy full of treats waiting in the mail. We took some pics of Pippin opening his gift that I'll have to post, although it's too bad you won't be able to smell these treats over the internet, I was half tempted to keep them and eat them myself....

So I think that pretty much sums up the last few days. I ended up skipping my long run this weekend. I had 7.5 on the plan, but I'm several weeks ahead of the plan anyway and I was just more interested in watching TV in the bed with my boys than heading out to run. Last week's 6.5 went great, I ended up with an average pace of 9:01, with my final miles being around 8:40 so I think I will be a-ok for completing the 10 mile race I'm signed up for in a few weeks. I don't have any expectations or goals other than making sure I get a RC Cola and a Moonpie at the finish, so I'd much rather enjoy life and not train like I might get into the Olympics at one of these races. I've been getting lots of good hill training running outside at lunch, so I should be fine by the end of June on race day.

I hope you have all had great weekends and have a great week ahead!

Opry Goodness

2008-05-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

So, after cheering it out for the CMM on Saturday morning/afternoon, we had a wonderfully delicious 2.5 hour nap. It was just one of those sleeps where you sleep and sleep and sleep and it's just magical. I think the tough week and early morning wore me out as much as if we had actually run!!

And then.....it was magic time! I am SO not a fan of country music, but I have to admit it's been growing on me lately. We've watched the Apprentice the last few years, and since there's never anything on TV we had TiVod Celebrity Apprentice this winter. That was my first exposure to that tall glass of water Trace Adkins. I couldn't tell you a THING that he sings, but I just really liked the way he carried himself on the show, and how he seemed like an honest, good ole boy. So, when the show finaled and he didn't win I told Brent I really wanted to see him in concert. All it took was some Googling to see that he'd be here at the Grand Ole Opry soon (he lives here in Nashville), so I started begging Brent for tickets. One thing B knows about me is that I am NOT a country fan, so in an attempt to convince me I wouldn't enjoy his show he got me a copy of his latest Greatest Hits CD. Well, his plan totally backfired because I was even more interested in seeing his show!! I eventually wore Brent down with a lot of dancing and whining and we went online to get a couple of tickets to the show.

We live really close to the Opryland Hotel tourist magnet, but the river sort of cuts us off from quick access. We left pretty early since we had to pick up our tickets at the will call window, so we got there about an hour before showtime. And clearly we were going to be spending the evening with a lot of gray hairs because the plaza was already packed and lines were formed of people waiting to get in. It was like bad Southwest airlines deja'vu. I have no clue why they had formed lines.....seats are all assigned anyway. Gotta love the oldies....We picked up our tickets very fast and still had about 45 minutes to kill. Looking around I saw there were several people dressed up as famous Opry classics.....so of course I had to have our pic made. The first one we went up to was Minnie Pearl. We started talking to her and it turns out she had run the full marathon that morning! We talked running for a bit and then headed on to the next one....Porter Wagoner. I don't know what he looked like when he was young, so I have no clue if this was a good replica or not. The third one we weren't sure about, so I had to ask and he was Hank Williams Sr. After some pic taking we headed into the Opry store where we tried on most every hat or other item you could play with, and I got a few little souvenirs for myself and a "grow your own cowboy" for my friend S. Now we were about 20 minutes from showtime so they opened the doors and the old people started rushing in. Our ticket taker was irritated at one of them who kept wanting to go back in and out, it was SO funny. I was really reminded of our trip to Vermont a few years ago when the old people kept literally pushing me at the Ben and Jerry's tour. It was nuts, old people can be so insanely cranky and pushy.

"Hank Williams Sr."

"Porter Wagoner"

So we made our way into our seats, we were in about the third row of the balcony, so we were still very close to the stage, and we were right on the end of the pew. We've been before but I had forgotten how they're pews and not actual seats. Luckily our row was of average size people, a row near us had several oversized people that scrunched the regular size people. A lot of people were wearing their race shirts from CMM and the two girls in front of us were hobbling which was hilarious. Before showtime they played about 10 minutes of clips and told the history of the Opry, and Minnie Pearl came on for a few to warm the crowd up.

The Opry is comprised of various "segments". From 6:30-7 was the "pre-show". Little Jimmy Dickens was the host and he came out and did a couple of songs and told some pretty funny jokes. He was SO little! I swear I am probably taller than him. He was too cute. Some other people performed in his segment, I don't actually know who they are or remember! Then at 7 the show went live on one of the country tv stations and radio. In this hour section you had your main acts. Trace Adkins started the show, then Ashton Shepherd came on and sang a few, then Crystal Gaile, and back to Trace. I wish they had lost Crystal Gaile because she was so bad and her hair is just getting gross. I'm not sure if she's been hanging out on an Indian reservation or what the deal is, because her stuff had this weird flute thing in it and was just awful. Ashton was pretty good, and WOW she is Southern!! Her accent just draaaags it's so Southern. Since they have so many performers in each set each one only gets to do 3-4 songs, so there wasn't nearly enough Trace. He didn't do a lot of my fave songs, but he did close with You're Gonna Miss This which is just the best song ever.

Little Jimmy Dickens, I like to call him "Itty Bitty Jimmy Dickens"

Ashton Shepherd:

Trace Adkins:

Then it was time for Post-Show #1. This was another half hour set hosted by Ray Pillow. I don't have a clue who he was, but he was pretty funny, sang a few and had several more guests in his segment. The final half hour, Post Show #2, was hosted by The Whites, another group I don't know but the lady had crazy eyebrows. There were a few more singers and they had some square dancers. Square dancing looked so fun, I really need to look into some lessons for B & I. After square dancing he may think the swimming lessons I made us take weren't such torture. =)

All in all it was great fun. A lot of the songs the various people sang were classics that most everyone would know, and it was just a fun touristy thing to do. I'd highly recommend anyone check it out, or take visiting peeps to it. The tickets prices aren't bad at all, and the way the theatre is set up there's really not a bad seat in the house. I definitely didn't get to see enough of my man Trace, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a real concert date in town.

Here's a video of the performance:

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Country Music Marathon, Spec Report

2008-05-01T18:46:00.001-07:00

Man, this week has flown by!! Between a few visits from the alarm company to correct a few things on the new system that weren't working properly, visits from more roofing contractors, work, and a trip to the veterinary ophthalmologist today for Pippin it's been one crazy week. But it's time to rewind to last Saturday and the Country Music Marathon!!

Our alarm went off at 6 am, which is way too early for us on a Saturday. We threw on some bike clothes and a few things into our knapsacks and then decided it was raining too hard to ride from home to Centennial Park. So we threw the bikes in the car and left at 6:30 and promptly got stuck like rats in a maze in our neighborhood, and I managed to leave the nice pamphlet they mail out to the neighborhood showing the closures at home. Blah. At 6:45 we were still circling and ended up just parking at the stadium with all the runners, basically only saving us 1.5 miles from home. The rain had slacked off so we got our bikes out and headed towards the park. The main thing I really wanted to see was the start, which we ended up completely missing with the traffic tie-up. We made it to the corner of the first turn of the race a few minutes after 7, and only missed seeing the first 3 corrals. The sea of people was nonstop (I think there was somewhere between 25,000-30,000 people??), but we did manage to pick out Jill, a coworker of mine, and then another coworker. Several people had told me what they were wearing so that really helped! We hung out through around corral 12 at that spot before moving on. (There were at least 32 corrals because I had a friend in corral 32!)

From there we rode by Music Row and decided to try to get ahead of most of the runners and get a glimpse of the elites. We headed over another row and staked out a spot outside Sambuca right at the 15K mark. Based on the helicopter placement we knew the lead runner would be coming through soon, and we seriously weren't there more than 2 or 3 minutes before he came tearing through. We had a great spot on a corner with a bunch of other bike people and as time went on more and more people came over from Music Row. At first whenever someone would come through the cheering would erupt, and then the individual runners soon became a sea of people again. It was so insanely hard to pick people out of the crowd!! Before long we saw our college buddy "B" come running through, and like every year she had a camera. I love the pic we got of her!! She ended up running a 1:35, she's crazy!!! Normally I just hear Brent tell me about how fast she came through, it was great to actually see it myself this year. A while later we saw David and Michele, and then a few minutes later I saw a coworker again, having a great time! He and his running buds actually pulled off and stopped for a photo. We even saw Brent's college marketing professor, who had NO CLUE who we were (it's been 10 years and we have certainly changed, plus I think the bike helmets make us even tougher to recognize!).

My form is soooo similar to his..

I'm thinking this "cyclist" sort of just happened upon the race....

Our super fast friend B:

And this is the picture she took of us, Brent is down taking a pic and I'm on the corner apparently flapping my "wings"!

David and Michele looking great:

Riding over the runners via Demonbreun:

From there we rode over to the marathon finish line, and only had to wait about 5 minutes for the first marathon finisher. We watched the first few come through before riding back out on the marathon course. We met the first female finisher coming in, and it was great to have such an up close experience with her! We stopped and cheered for her and she looked over at us and smiled, so cool! We staked out a spot around the Mile21/25 spot. We'd only been there a few minutes when a redneck resident's dog started trying to attack the runners/spectators. Actually, their FOUR redneck dogs wanted to attack everyone. A policeman had to be called over to deal with it, ridiculous. We saw one of the reporters from News2 running a great race, then saw a former coworker of mine booking it and then a few minutes later saw Michele looking so strong!! And then....there was the dead snake. It turns out right by our spot there was a snake that had been run over a few times. Every once in a while we'd get a runner asking us "uhh.....was that a snake?" And then sometimes it would just crack us up watching the runners step smack on it. After nearly 5 hours of cheering and being soaked through from the early rain, and then just cold and shivering all morning, it didn't take much to amuse us.

News 2 guy:

Snake on the road...:

Runner stepping on snake and realizing it....

Michele finishing strong!

Around noon we started riding back towards the start, I'm not even sure how we missed seeing the rest of the people we were looking for, and how we ended up seeing some people only once. The parking lot at the stadium was massive gridlock so we just rode our bikes home and went back later for the car. Spectating was fun, but nowhere near as fun as running it! It's crazy how large (and ridiculously expensive) this race has gotten. I think it's already $70 to sign up for the half right now....a year away!! Contrast that with the 10 miler next month I just signed up for that's only $25. Sure there's no big expo or flashy bands every mile....but that's ok. I'd rather have the money in my pocket anyway.

SO, that's my CMM report and if I get industrious I may even get my Opry report up tonight, too! (but highly doubtful!) Have a great night!

Saturday in the South.....

2008-04-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a Saturday! It's going to take a while to get all the pics we've taken today into a post, but congrats to everyone who ran Music City today!!! It started out rainy but then got massively warm and sunny!! We left around 6:30 this morning and got rained on pretty steadily until about 20 or 30 minutes into the race and had a pretty chilly morning cheering. I had a light pair of shorts on over my bike shorts, and a windbreaker over my bike jersey and arm warmers but really wish I had more! Anyway, we cheered runners we knew and didn't know right past the start, at the 15K mark, the finish and then on around 21/25 as well as at various spots we biked along the way. I have new found respect for Brent and all the cheering he does for me because it can get a little dull, chilly and wet!! All in all we were out there for around 5-5.5 hours before we headed home and got to see most of the people we were looking for, and a few surprise friends. I'll have more pics and what-not in the next few days when I find a few minutes.

And then tonight is was the Grand Ole Opry. So.stinking.fun. Why have we never been in the 9 years we've lived here??? It was a blast, and I have lots of fun pics of the evening. Between the long day of cheering and yelling/hoop n'hollering tonight, along with the sinus infection I think I'm getting me and my voice are BEAT! I don't look like I have a set of lungs on me, but if you're heading past me and I know your name I use all I've got! Whew.

So, here's just a couple to tide you over!

The overall marathon top finisher, so fast!!

My cheering garb, complete with the tambourine I acquired when a kid left it in the bushes. SCORE!

Me and Trace Adkins:

I seriously would've bought this hat if I had any clue how cute I was in it:

2008-04-26T06:22:00.001-07:00

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On the Mark....

2008-04-25T18:13:00.001-07:00

Wow, someone has flipped a switch and the GMA-ers in town from earlier this week have been turned into a bunch of skinny runners pretty much overnight! Tomorrow is going to be weird in lot of ways since I'm not doing CMM this year. But, my pockets will be bouncier with that extra $90 in it and I've never actually gotten to see the race (or any race this large) so it's going to be a fun experience in its own right. The plan is still to bike around various points, so everyone collectively do an anti-rain dance otherwise we'll just be stuck driving to various points which is nowhere near as fun or calorie burning. I've got to get all my bike stuff laid out tonight and hopefully find a few noisemakers. I'd love a cowbell, but I'm not sure where to buy one??? I went to the expo today and got a few things. I'd be lying if I said it didn't just tear at me a little to not be leaving with one of those white runner bags, but I really think this twinge is going to help with the other twinge of massive running/house/life burnout I have. So good luck to everyone, and Lana has a THOROUGH list of everyone running!!! I'm pretty sure I've already honked at every last one of them, too. I took me stinking 25 minutes to go 1.5 miles this afternoon since there was no way for me to get home except to go through them. Blah.

Overall this has been a really, really crappy week for us. I'm not going into details but I am going into a bubble bath instead. The absolute least of the week being one roofing company basically flat out refusing to even quote our roof as it was "just too difficult" and most of the companies won't even return our calls once they come out. (We've literally called 16 companies now and have 2 actual quotes.) We knew it would be expensive because of the pitch and the many layers of roof already on to be removed, but this is getting nuts. We do have one solid company we've moved on to the "second round" and we'll probably just go with them. On the plus side we did get a new home security alarm this week that is PIMP. It doesn't require a phone line, it all works cellularly making it tougher for criminals since they can't just cut the phone wires. It has every bell and whistle so Pippin can now enjoy an early retirement and rest easy. It's just pimp, really. And on the plus side I have the **best** husband ever who surprised me by bringing home my fave dinner yesterday along with flowers and some yummy dessert, to make me feel better about the crap of the week. AND, we're going to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night to see my new favorite singer. I am going to get so badonkey-donked.

So, I guess even the crappiest week ever isn't so crappy when you add in a pimp new security system, the best husband ever, and Trace Adkins.

Good luck runners, it's time for this country-boy loving lady to soak this week away for a long, long time with a copy of Runners World. Or This Old House. Maybe both.

4-a-day

2008-04-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! I got my first 4-a-day workout in today! Sweet!

I did my usual lunch time workout, today I ran from the Y (thank God it's open again and there's no more changing in the work bathroom) and headed towards Centennial Park. I pretty much have 35 minutes to workout at lunch, so I made it right to the park before I needed to turn around. I hit several lights and had to wait, which is pretty irritating, but I really need some good acclimation to heat and hills so I certainly achieved that today! I think our high was around 80 today, and I ended up pouring sweat and with a beet red face by the time I was finished. And I had a homeless guy tell me I was doing great and to keep it up, so what else do you need??

While the Y was closed for the asbestos removal a coworker and I started walking a mile in the afternoons at work as part of a "non-smoking" break. Even now that the gym is back open we've kept it up. We usually spend that same amount time on a gossip break every day anyway, so we might as well be moving. Our office is very workout friendly. Besides being next door to the gym and offering great discounts, our "complex" has a map on several walls showing you various paths to take to walk a mile, and how many laps you would need to do. Tons of office ladies don their sneaks every morning & afternoon and burn a few calories. So, workout #2.

After dinner we've started taking Pippin for at least a mile walk. And he's come to expect it. The whining, crying, and looking at the door once our forks are down pretty much has clued us in that he's onto us. And he deserves to get out every day, too. Tonight we walked over to Shelby Park and did a loop of the tennis courts and enjoyed the gorgeous spring night. Workout #3.

Brent got his bike all dusted off last weekend while I did my 5.5 miler, and I've had bike jealousy ever since. We intended to ride Sunday but got too busy in the yard. And our plan is to bike around the CMM course this Saturday cheering for the runners and our friends, so Brent told me he wasn't about to let me "relearn" riding on race day, so once we got back from Pippin's walk we went for a bike ride. (We're early work birds - Brent leaves for work around 6:45 and I leave at 7, I'm home at 5 and he's home around 5:30.....tonight I made a quick dinner of spinach and artichoke ravioli, so we were ready to hit the streets at 6:15. I love short commutes. I love not working long hours.) Once I got my gears all straightened back out I totally remembered why I love riding!! So.much.easier.than.running. I just love to coast and feel the breeze. We rode around for about 20 minutes before it started to get dark. I can't wait to ride more!!!!

And that, my friends, is how you fit in 8 hours of work and 4 workouts into one day. With time to spare. Happy Earth Day!!

Spring Fever

2008-04-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! No time to post, just a quick hello to say......"hello!". You know your weekend is starting with a buzz when you're awoken at 4:30 in the morning to an earthquake! What a strange feeling, but from growing up in Memphis I was pretty aware of what it was - although also pretty asleep! Pippin on the other hand, was not so happy and jumped up out of his bed barking, thinking his bed was somehow revolting against him!! Brent....well, he slept through the whole thing entirely!

Anyway, we had a great weekend of gardening, house stuff, park stuff, running stuff, dinner stuff and dog stuff. It rained, it was sunny, I got sunburned. Of course. I got all of my backyard gardens planted, and have a few flowers I need to get into the front yard this week. We also got most of the baseboards for several rooms cut, and I got them all painted Sunday afternoon (thus causing the sunburn). It took Brent a lot longer to cut them because we bought very wide baseboard - too wide for the saw, so it took a lot of manual work. They're gonna look gorgeous....

Saturday morning I ran a gorgeous 5.5 miler downtown. The sun felt so nice, and Brent rode behind me on his bike. Yum. My plan was 4 miles but as I am geography challenged I ended up with 5.5, which was just fine. The race I'm contemplating is 10 miles, so it's nice to be already more than halfway there with nearly 2 months to spare. The plan for this weekend is 5, but I'll prob up that to 6-6.5 instead.

We also met Tom, Nicole and Scooter for Earth Day, which sucked. (Earth Day, not T,N & S.) I don't know if they just had crap vendors or bands or the rainy weather Saturday kept all the fun away but it just plain sucked. But they did get to witness the insaneness of how "personal" Pippin likes to get with the other dogs at the dog park......Speaking of, we're going to see a veterinary ophthalmologist in a couple of weeks. Seriously, there's one in the city and our vet referred us to him since the ointment didn't do any good. There's really nothing we think the doc can do for him, but he can 100% diagnosis it which will be reassuring. The spot doesn't bother Pippin and the main thing we have to do is just an eye on it, but it will be nice to have a second opinion.

One day Pippin is going to get Tom back for this one......and most likely via a direct lick to the mouth.

We also went to a dinner party at our neighbor's house where he pretty much served us hamburger tartare. It was pretty much....gross. I don't like my burger to be a brick, but I'm not so fond of it moo-ing either. Needless to say a lot of burgers were in the trash last night and thankfully we didn't get sick!

Anyway, that's the short version. Time to relax on the couch with the boys although it will be so hard to tear myself away from the nice breeze coming through our open back door. I.love.spring.

It's a bird, It's a plane.....

2008-04-18T03:52:00.001-07:00

Last night as we took Pippin for a walk we saw something more than a little.....unusual.

We're just walking along, enjoying the beautiful evening and hear the normal yapping of a dog in our very pet oriented neighborhood. So we scan around looking to see if we're about to be attacked, and then we realize that the sound is coming from above. For the first time ever, a dog was barking at us from on the roof. We don't have a CLUE how he got up there, and I really don't want to know how he got down. (You may have to click on the photo to see the dog. The stairs lead to the side apartment, he'd have to take a pretty big jump to get from their to the roof. He prob got there via one of the windows.)

Anyway, it's been a busy week and we're wiped out. The tornado service Wed night was great and we got on every news station here! They were all there filming the ceremony, so no matter what channel of local news you watched Wed night you could see the back of both of our heads! It was really a special night. The mayor spoke, a high-up from Vandy spoke, another local council person, several neighbors spoke very movingly of their experience, and then the Vandy chamber orchestra performed a piece that they had written just for this occasion. Afterwards various photos and video were on display in the church basement. Then it got weird - as we left a guy was outside SELLING T-SHIRTS that said "I survived the 1998 tornado". How weird, and completely inappropriate. And they were 100% ugly and redneck.

Here's some of the news crews in the back of the church:

The mayor is in a gray suit:

I hope you all have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

Mayoral Poop

2008-04-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! How's it going??? I can't believe the week is already half over!

We had a great weekend here in TN! When we got home Friday the weather was nice and since we knew the cold weather was coming we loaded up the Pippers and headed for the park. By some freak of nature Brent forgot his camera, which sucks because it was crazy how high the lake and river were, and in a lot of places on the greenway water was running right over. Very different from last summer when the lake was so low due to the drought. After nearly being eaten by a ferocious chow in a muzzle and an evil Jack Russel with fangs for teeth we headed home where I had a message from Nicole on my phone. We met them for dinner at MadDonna's and had good times. We had been to MadDonna's a couple of weeks after they opened and were less than impressed - there was mass confusion and annoying patio heater issues and a girl melted part of the tent before nearly turning the whole heater over on me....but this time went much better. Their shrimp and grits had been horrible, this time I tried the sweet potato enchiladas which were GREAT although their black beans were about the dullest thing I've ever tasted. We had a great time hearing all about T & N's first few days here in Nashville and catching up with all their moving excitement!

And as life is one massive roller coaster.....when we got home we discovered that our entire network had been fried in Friday's storms. We had some very strong storms on Friday (during which I brilliantly walked to the library and back at lunch with tornado sirens a-blazing) and I guess we had a big power surge. Clue #1 was our garage door not opening when we got home, which seems to happen when we have a surge. All we have to do is unplug it and it resets, no biggie. When I got in I noticed our network was done, but that's pretty normal after a storm so I just surfed off a neighbor. Once we got in from dinner Brent went to reset it....except there was nothing to reset. All the brilliant flashing lights in our top secret computer closet were gone.....never to return. So that knocked out our cable modem, router and wireless access point. I told Brent "Merry Christmas" and gave him free reign to build the network of his dreams....with power surge protectors. We've been replacing pieces as they break, but he'd been looking at upgrading for a while. Saturday am we had to abandon our plans and head out to buy some electronics. We also did some shopping and took a tour of a neighborhood I'd rather not return to.....

In the afternoon I enjoyed the sunshine and got my garden dug. We've already mapped out our "dream landscaping" for the back yard and all my little seedling are starting to be really gangly and need to be in the real dirt. So I got the whole thing dug this past weekend and hopefully can plant this weekend.

Sat night we had plans with our friends Steph and Nathan to go to an art opening over here and have some weenies from the local weenie place. But, weenies close at 6 and they got here around then SO plans changed for the better. After enjoying the show and an antique shop where some hussy bought an owl I really wanted (I was coming back for it.....GRRRR!) we headed to the Gerst Haus. We seriously always forget about it, even though we pass it every stinking day. BUT OMG, it was so fun! It's a German restaurant and on Fri and Sat nights they have live German music. It was so awesome!! Nathan got so into it he was like a kid at Christmas and we had a blast. And I got the best kielbasa I have ever stinking had. I am drooling now just thinking about it!!!! Their food was so insanely good that we plan on actually remembering it more often!

Sunday we were mostly lazy but we did take Pippin for a very chilly walk. The cold front moved in late Saturday and Sunday was overcast and crappy and too chilly. We got out for our walk and we've started just taking random turns and exploring new parts of the neighborhood. We were walking up Stratton and enjoying the beautiful houses when we notice Pippin arched up pooping, in the former mayor's yard. I guess Pippin was telling him what he thinks of him not being in office anymore...So Brent got the pleasure of picking up poo from the former mayor's yard! Nothing's better than that..... =)

Anyway, it was stinking cold yesterday too!! It's just wrong to wear long sleeves with so many things in bloom and a yard that need cutting for the third time already! But, in GREAT news the Y reopened yesterday. I swear I nearly cried walking back in there. All of the ceilings are gone, and a lot of things are boarded up and rearranged for the current phase of construction. It's very odd! They had a red carpet rolled out for everyone yesterday, a DJ, free food all day and even today they were walking around handing out free bottled waters while you worked out. Aaaah, it's so good to be back. I think my joy spurred me to a great run yesterday, 4 miles at 8:49 pace which includes mile 1 at 9:30 pace warmup.

Tomorrow marks an important day in our neighborhood. It's been TEN years since a tornado tore through East Nashville and the revitalization began. Crack houses returned to beautiful historic home and property value skyrocketed. We were finishing up college in West TN then, just a few months away from graduating, getting married and moving here. On the 1 yr anniversary I was working for a wretched public accounting firm downtown and it was crazy to hear the stories of my coworkers huddling in the stairwells of the skyscraper I worked in and about all the glass broken downtown. It's very rare for a tornado to come through a downtown area.....There's a service in the neighborhood tomorrow night we're planning to go to, it's going to be so crazy to see all the pictures and hear about everyone's experiences. There's a church that rebuilt that I pass every morning on my way to work at Woodland and 5th that has a concrete memorial that says "God was not in the tornado but in the response" and that just says so much.

So, happy Tax Day, merry Wednesday, and "happy" 10th anniversary to East Nashville. I like to think we're doing our own part (as Brent sands away in the front room) to keep that response going.

Lipids and Corneal Degeneration

2008-04-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

W'sup!!! What a gorgeous day today leading into storms tonight..... Today was a huge day as in the first airing of The Office is AGES and thanks to our wonderful and volatile weather the last FOUR MINUTES of The Office were cut off because of tornadoes approaching our western "viewing area". Really, who cares about them??? Most of their audience is here in the 'Ville and WE WANT THE OFFICE!!! So frustrating....Brent's car thermometer read 84 degrees this afternoon on the way to the vet, that's prob a little high but our forecast was for 78. It's insane to think it was nearly 90 today! =)

So, Pippin's visit. We had a 5 pm appointment at the vet and as always we were seen right away. I love that we don't spend all day there like we did at our vet in the suburbs. We saw a different vet than our normal lady, but normally we go on Saturdays but I really didn't want to wait until the weekend on this one. And....I really don't know how to say this nicely.....but their was something wrong with her eyes. Like one of them she kept pretty much closed, and then all of a sudden it would be open, and then closed again....and then the other one would be sort of crazy.....and it was just so ironic since we were there for Pippin's eye problem. But she was very nice and everything, it was just....a little odd. And she scored major points by saying how great Bostons are since they are always friendly and never bite - and if anyone knows which breed is friendly it's going to be a vet!

Pippin couldn't have cared less and didn't have a clue why we were there, he was just glad to be licking some people. They did a dye test on his eye to rule out any scratches or abrasions and then looked at his eye with a light thing. I think that also tests for cataracts. She thinks it's corneal degeneration aka cholesterol/lipid deposits of the eye. Here's a link and another link. It seems to be common in Bostons, and other breeds with the larger, protruding eyes. It doesn't seem to be painful or really impair their vision. It can be caused by genetics, or thyroid issues, or cholesterol issues. In some cases I've read online they've had blood tests done and it's shown high cholesterol in the animals. (On a side note, Pippin has lost nearly a pound since his last visit for his annual exam a couple of months ago! Yay!! I thought he was losing, but it's so nice to have confirmation!) We've been thinking about changing his diet to organic foods, so this may be a very good time to do that and cut the fat back more.

On the down side, it seems in some cases it can form painful ulcers, possibly require surgery and lead to blindness. It's just one of those unpredictable things. She gave us some ointment to try, we have to (somehow) put it on his eyes 3 times a day for the next week and we have a return visit for next Thurs afternoon.

So, for now I guess I'm ok with this, it's not like I have a choice. I love the Woof board, I read a lot of forums where people came with the same issue and others commented about how their Boston has had it for a long time with no issues, so that's reassuring. I should have looked there earlier, they were great when Pippin was about to have surgery on his luxating patella (which is totally great now - you'd be AMAZED how many hits I get for people looking for advice on it. At his exam in January the doc couldn't even tell which leg he had the surgery on by feeling his legs and looking at them - she actually guessed the WRONG leg!! You wouldn't know he ever had any problems....if you came here debating whether or not to get the surgery GET IT!). So we'll lube up his eye over the next week, see what happens, prob get his blood tested for cholesterol & change his diet and then take the vet's advice about seeing a doggie ophthalmologist. Because if anything is interesting dinner party conversation I'm sure the price of visiting a canine eye doctor specialist has got to be way up there and I've been feeling like Pippin needs a whole new level of spoiled lately. =)

That's all for now!!! We're hoping for some hail in these storms tonight, you know, anything to help us with getting a new roof! From the sound of porch swing slamming against our front window over and over in this wind we may get that wish tonight.... Happy weekend!

There's no such thing as the simple life....

2008-04-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday! Or just plain Wednesday! to those of you having blee blah weeks like we are.

There's so many ups and downs right now, I feel like a massive stress bomb just waiting to unload on some unsuspecting soul. Monday was a gorgeous day here in the Mid Tenn. I took my stuff to change in the bathroom at work for an outdoor run and WOW! it was so warm!! I think it was 71 or so and I was really glad I brought my hand-held. I rambled around downtown, did a lot of hills, ran down to check out the overflowing Cumberland River and then headed back to work. As soon as I got home I mowed our insanely tall and green yard before we settled in to watch "the game". Yeah, the ending sucked but it was a great game. I can't say anything bad about them because they are far more talented than I am, but I really hope they spend a LOT of time working on their free throws this summer. At every commercial break we were up washing dishes, getting laundry in and out, etc. I think we felt as ragged as the players by the end!

While we were stretched out on our lawn chairs Monday night post-mow I noticed a strange spot on one of Pippin's eyes. It's this white/gray/clearish dot about the size of a pen tip on one of his pupils. It doesn't seem to bother him, but it's very strange. I made the mistake of Googling it while we were watching the game and it could be anything from a little minor eye infection that needs some drops to a pigment flaw that's harmless to a rapidly progressing eye disease that causes blindness and is very common in Boston Terriers from the ages of 5 to 12. I should never, ever Google things like this. So of course I'm worried sick and we have a vet appointment tomorrow afternoon at 5. It's just not FAIR. He had his whole deal with the luxating patella and knee surgery last year, shouldn't he be clear of any additional problems forever?? And I know I'm blowing something out of proportion that could truly be nothing, but I'm going to be a basketcase until tomorrow afternoon.

Throw on top of that our continuing roof saga. I am going to declare that there are no longer any roofers in Nashville. We may have to import a roofer from some other state, because no one here wants to give quotes or actually work. At this point we don't care if they're an illegal alien, purple with blue spots or if they are a man who thinks he's pregnant, if they can work and have some initiative they'd have the job. Seriously, frustrated. And then, heaven help our insurance adjuster. The man came out Tues morning at 8 to see if we have enough hail damage to get us some $$. He was hoping he could see it all from the ground (??) and then when he did get up on the roof he was up there so long we thought maybe he fell asleep or passed out. Seriously, he was there an hour and a half. He didn't make it sound very optimistic for us, and then about 15 mins after I finally got to work he called and said he had left his notebook on top of his car and could I go outside and see if it's somewhere in the road. Um, yeah. So I told him we were both already at work and he said "oh, it's ok. There was nothing important in there." Yeah, so an hour and a half of walking around on our roof and there's NOTHING IMPORTANT in there??? Could our lives be more odd???

Today another idiot contractor (who won't get our business for SURE) canceled an appointment with Brent for the THIRD (and now final) time and I've pretty much cooked a sucky dinner for two days in a row. Thank goodness there's a fresh tub of ice cream in the fridge for us to chow on in a minute. But it's gorgeous outside and we've been taking Pippin on nice long walks and everything is all green and bloomy. And it could be worse, we could be homeless and have to sleep under the interstate overpass where it smells like pee. And where I hit a pigeon yesterday with my car. Watch out animals, I am having an off week. I'd just like a cup of simple, please.

So anyway, ramble and whine over. It's time to give Pippin a bath. I have an odd thing where when we have a vet appointment I like him to be super clean. OH, and congrats to the Lady Vols for their win!! We caught the last few minutes of it last night after I finished paying the last of our business taxes for the year (yay for that being done!!!). Have a great Thursday everyone!!!

Tigerlicious

2008-04-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I stumble just because of my size
But hey y'all that's alright
That's the way God made me
I am what I am
And I can't do nothing bout that
It's hard to get around in a six foot town
When you're ten feet tall everything is so small
I'm always bumping my head

What's up?!?!?!?!?!?

How about them Tigers?????

After Brent slept for 13 hours he was feeling better, we did some chores around the house and then headed south to Brent's parent's house. We watched THE game, cheered for Memphis, and then watched part of the Kansas-NC game. I can't believe Memphis made it to the Final 2!!! I have been "playing it cool" because I am a firm believer in the jinx!! On our way back to Nashville today we stopped in wretched Cool Springs to try to find some Memphis gear. I have at least a good half dozen Memphis pom-poms packed in a box somewhere, but good luck with finding that one.....I totally struck out at about 3 shops before I stumbled into a Foot Locker (Brent and Pippin were waiting outside in the car) where they had Final 4 shirts, hats and gear. I struck out trying to get a big flag to fly in our flagpole, I need to just go ahead and order that stuff now and have it for next year. Two of the three girls working in Foot Locker were originally from Memphis (no one here is actually from Nashville) so we bonded over the team. I've got a Memphis cake (birthday cake that will be carved into the M) in the oven right now and we're planning a yum game-themed dinner for tomorrow night, and I'll probably use a whole bottle of blue food coloring dying everything blue. GO TIGERS!!!!!! It's too bad my parents have retired away from Memphis because I bet the city is going crazy!!! It was always so fun when I was little and they would do well in the tournament. It seems like ages since they've had a great team, but my fam has been fans in the good years and the bad, so hopefully this will be the year!

Anyway, the weekend went way too fast. Today was a special 90th anniversary of the church Brent grew up in so his parents wanted us there for a big homecoming. We saw a lot of people we haven't seen in ages, and one guy our age told us about another couple we went to college with that are going through a divorce. It's so crazy, they seemed 100% perfect for each other, and she's the first person I ever told I was going to marry Brent. She and this guy (A) (who was from Brent's hometown) started dating pretty much when we did, and right after our first date we were out together going for a walk and she asked me how it was going with Brent and I remember looking at her and saying "I'm going to marry this one" and she said she knew she was going to marry A as well. It's so strange to think of them not together. This world can be pretty screwed up.

I hope you all had a great weekend and are cheering for the BLUE AND WHITE tomorrow NIGHT!!!! All I know is a tiger is a helluva lot more ferocious than a brightly colored bird. And if anyone knows how to scrap.....it's Memphis.

Galoshes Would Make it Better

2008-04-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

Mama, why am I so alone?
I can't go outside
I'm scared I might not make it home
I'm alive but I'm sinking in
If there's anyone at home at your place
Why don't you invite me in
Don't try to bleed me
I've been there before and I deserve a little more

I belong in the service of the Queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been lying
I've been sinking
And I am the Rain King

For the love of God is it ever going to stop raining? I really don't think it is, the last week has just been a mass of rain and thunder and lightning, pretty much the last thing you want when you're trying to get a new roof. It literally has been raining since before I woke up today. No one can come and quote on the roof when all it does is poor down constantly, and so I'm sure all these roofers are getting further and further behind. It's just a massive disaster and my hair has been a total wreck for a week now. Our yard is about a foot tall now and really needs a cutting but it's way too wet for it. Everyone at work seems totally sluggish due to a lack of sunlight and Pippin's cabin fever resulted in him "sampling" a mostly empty bucket of drywall (that we were using to capture the leakage from our crappy skylight) while we were at work today. He had quite the fun time and got it all over himself, stuck to his nose, slathered on his collar and of course all over his feet and we can pretty much tell which furniture he hung out on the rest of today...... There have been a few nights where the break has been large enough (or the drizzle light enough) that we've gotten to take him for walks, and I can't complain about the temps, just the massive quantities of rain.

Workouts have been decent this week. Mon and Tues I had a decent and then a great run. Wed was the first day the gym was closed, so I ventured the half mile walk to the other downtown Y with a coworker. Um yeah, tiny was an understatement. It's the top floor (the 30th) of the 5th Third bank building at the corner of Church and 5th, but WOW is it small. Since I had run Mon and Tues, Wed was a cross train day (which normally would be a swim day, but this Y is pool-less) and that's a good thing because the only machine open was the ski machine. I did my ski-thing for 20 mins and then headed back. So, 20 mins of ski plus a one mile walk. Not too bad. Thursdays I always have another obligation, and today it was raining so badly that there was just no way I could walk a mile to the gym in the massive hurricane going down outside. So, some ladies and I followed the indoor walking "trail" posted on the office walls. First we climbed the stairs all the way to the top - a total of 12 stories - to the top of our largest building from where we are in the "dungeon". Then we did the "trail" which is just a large loop between a couple of building utilizing our skywalks. 7 laps equal a mile so we did that. We're actually going to start doing that in the morning and the afternoon, if we're going to have some gossip time we might as well be productive! Any extra exercise is better than nothing. And when I got home I did one hour of toning DVDs to make up for not hitting the gym today. Good stuff....

And from 7:30 on tonight I've been on my own. Brent made some AWESOME brownies last night. Seriously, they were some of the best brownies EVER. But it gave him a headache last night, which we thought was a weird coincidence, until this morning when he had one for breakfast (um yeah) and has had a bad headache ever since. We turned down a dinner invite and stayed home, and I made a yummy chicken stew that I THOUGHT would make him feel better, but he pretty much said he felt like he was going to puke after dinner and went to bed. So, note to self: chicken stew is not a good comfort food for Brent. So Brent's been asleep in the bed, Pippin's been asleep in my lap and I've been catching up on the things I TiVo that Brent refuses to watch. Just.One.Wild.Night. Hopefully this is not the start to a crap weekend!

And Good Luck to the University of Memphis Tigers tomorrow!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!! I am so excited they are in the Final 4!!!! I'm gonna be wearing my ancient Memphis shirt tomorrow and cheering for my homies!!! Holllaaaaaa! Happy Friday everyone!