Anticipation is Building

The official countdown clock is 2 days 23:05:45 while I sit and write this to the Mini Marathon. While I have run this race 3 or 4 times prior to this year, for some reason I am really getting excited for this race. I think it is because I am in the best shape of my life, even better than before the girls were born and I have shaved 2 minutes off my usual pace. I have gone from 12 minute miles to 10 minute miles. I attribute this achievement to two things. The first is pushing the double jogging stroller and the additional 45 pounds of the girls and to my great running partner, Sheri! It is great when you find a good running match and she is mine. She pushes me when I want to quit and her pace naturally is faster than mine, but she slows down when I need to and has really helped me excel this year. My goal is to finish the race in 2:15 or under, that is my best ever time that I achieved my first time running the mini. So look for the results on Saturday or Sunday! Also, good luck to all you other runners out there that are attempting this great race!

It's Done!

We didn't let the wind get us down and by Sunday afternoon the girls were able to play on the play set. They love it and I am glad. We will be spending a lot of time out there this summer. I have figured out that I can place a chair in between the swings and sit and push them. Now I just have to figure out how to push two swings and read a book or magazine at the same time :-) Here are a few pictures of it. We still have a few cosmetic pieces to fix and install, but the structure is secure and safe and ready for playing!

There's Good Luck And Then There's Our Luck

Tom and I have always wondered if we just breed bad karma, or if we have natural disasters flags on us, because it seems like we cannot have anything nice. We get a new car and within a year we are in an accident. 5 out of about 7 over our cars in our lives have been in accidents, none our fault. We build a new house and it is flooded. We spend around 12-15 hours putting together that swing set for the girls and a huge gust of wind comes along and knocks what we have done over, splintering pieces and breaking other things. It was heart wrenching I tell you. Tom has been spending a few hours each evening working on it and then I put in about 4.5 hours today, mostly while the girls napped, and then with one gust over it goes. We cannot believe it and needless to say we are pissed and saddened. It isn't like it is ours, it is for the girls. Couldn't they have something nice or have we passed our bad luck onto them...I REALLY hope not. Don't get me wrong we have very blessed lives, but we have faced a lot of disappointments to. Anyway, back to the swing set. We purchased it at Toys-R-Us...our first mistake. We should have gone with the one from Lowes, but it was more expensive, so we thought we would get the one we did, which also had more features. I guess you get what you pay for. Our second mistake was trying to put it up ourselves. We should have just shelled out the cash and had someone do it, then it would have been finished and maybe the wind wouldn't have been able to pick it up and toss it like a rag doll. We are now in the process of piecing things back together and trying to jerry rig things so they are sturdy and the girls will have a safe place to play!

When is it worth it to hire an installer?

Lots of wood that WAS NOT Labeled AT ALL
Swings etc


Yesterday we purchased a play set for the girls. In an attempt to save money, so we can build a fence, we decided to install it ourselves. Today when I was unloading all the wood and Tom came home to a mess in the garage we looked at each other and I asked him when it was worth it to pay someone to install the thing for us. He laughed and said right now. From the pictures you can see that the garage is taken over at the moment with wood and piece, but hopefully by the end of next weekend we will have swings and a slide for the girls. Look for more pictures throughout the week, and probably some complaining too!

18 month update

Today the girls turned 18 months old. I cannot believe how fast time is flying and that in a few short months they will be two years old already. It is really amazing how time flies and how fast they grow and change. They had their 18 month check-up last week and they are as healthy as can be. Maddie is now 30 and 1/4 inches and 23 pounds and Little Natalie has surprisingly surpassed her sister in height and is 30 and 3/4 inches and 21 pounds. We were finally able to turn their car seats around and they love it...they were in complete awe and kept smiling because they can finally see where they are going instead of where they have been. Other than that it seems like they are learning a new word daily and are up to about 30 or more words. Natalie's favorite word at the moment is "No" and it is the cutest no in the world, although I am sure this will change when she becomes more defiant. Maddie likes to say "mamma" and to take your hand and hold it while she leads you to whatever it is she wants. Today the overwhelmed me with pride when they were able to put together "more, please" during lunch when they wanted more crackers. While this was just sign language I was so happy that they put the two together. We just started working on the please and they have really caught on, between the sign language and their ever developing speech, communicating with them has gotten much easier. Other than that all is going well and we are waiting for spring to unpack the warm weather to stay and to get approval from our Home Owners Association so we can put up our swing set. This summer will be a busy one for us, but I am looking forward to some travel and keeping the girls busy and out of the house. So that is all for now, but look for more some day down the road.

Disappointment

Today, I had a moment of great disappointment. What could cause such disappointment you ask? Well, earlier this week Ellen announced that she would be filming her show in Chicago sometime in May. I couldn't believe it, I was so excited. I had asked Tom if someday if we were ever in an area where she was taping if I could go and of course he said yes. So I immediately e-mailed him asking him if he could take the day off to watch the girls if I was able to get tickets to the Chicago show. At this time I didn't know when the taping would be. Today, they had the Chicago taping up on her ticket section and wouldn't you know it...it is the day of the Indianapolis Mini Marathon. I cannot even begin to explain to you how disappointed this made me. I will admit, that even though I have put months of effort and training into this race for a split second I thought about not doing it and still trying to get tickets. I then realized I couldn't do this to myself, or to Sheri, who has been the BEST training partner ever and who has trained even harder than I have. So I guess it wasn't meant to be and hopefully someday in the future, the near future, I will have another opportunity to see a taping of the show. For now though I will have to be content with watching it from the comfort of my own home!

Tag I'm It

A few days ago I was "tagged" by Chantelle so I guess I will oblige and tell you seven things about me. I will then pass along this nice tag and make a few others "it" :-)

1. I was born in Fort Collins Colorado, where I lived for fourteen years. I was then uprooted and moved to the great land of Medina Ohio. I lived there for five years at which point I moved to Indiana for college and have lived here since.

2. I have travelled to over 18 countries including: England, France, Switzerland (my favorite), Spain, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Trinidad, Tobago, St. Lucia and I won't name anymore!

3. Maine is one of my favorite states in all of America and I especially love Camden, where both myself and my Aunt Kim were married and Friendship, where I have been going since before birth.

4. Tom and I meet at my first job out of college and we were the "office" romance...tisk, tisk...my how that worked out. I guess I should also add for those who care or are keeping tabs...he was just supposed to be a rebound from a long time boyfriend whom i had just broken up with, but here we are happily married almost 6 years later!

5. 99% of the time I will delete any sort of forward that is sent to me, even if it is from my Grandmother...I just find that not much useful information can be found continually forwarding messages on, especially chain letters.

6. I never used to believe in Self Tanner, but I simply cannot stand the thought of being pale and I do not want to age myself anymore or risk cancer so I won't go to tanning beds anymore.

7. Nicholas Sparks is one of my favorite authors and I always pre-order his books and read them within a few days of receiving them, I mean what more is there to do since Harry Potter is finished :-)

I now "tag" Tom, Sheri, Kelly , Maya, and Jeanelle. I look forward to reading seven new things about you all and sorry if you have been tagged before!