National Spelling Bee Week!

Random, right? But every year there always ends up being some awesome winner who makes my day.

Hopefully there will be a 2009 winner just as cool as Evan O'Dorney was 2 years ago.....



**Update: Congrats to Kavya Shivashankar for winning the 2009 Bee! She's officially our new little hometown hero!

Memorial Day Cookout!

After hours of yard work and house cleaning, we were able to enjoy the beautiful weather we had this weekend with both sides of the family on Sunday. Equipped with yard games, tons of food and lots of laughs, it was a great evening! Below are some pictures of us playing tailgate golf, and the chef grilling his blue cheese burgers along with our delicious desserts. I made a dessert pizza and my Aunt found the most amazing cake from Dillons in Lawrence!
We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday weekend as well!

Morning Running

I did it! I got up early and ran before work.....only made it 4 miles, but still followed through!

For those of you who don't know, I've never been a big "exercise before work" person and prefer to delay this physical labor as long into the day/evening as I can.

Last night I decided to change that. I'm burned out of not winding down at night until 8 or 8:30pm and trying to cram all my DVR shows into a couple of hours. I figured that I'm a comfortable runner now and just need a few warm up times before becoming a morning pro.

After trying (and failing) to think of an excuse this morning at 6am to NOT get out of bed and NOT run, I moped into the closet to change my clothes. Once outside, however, it was wonderful. The air was cool and crisp and no sun was beating down on my shoulders. It's not too humid yet and my energy level was surprisingly high. It DEFINITELY beat trying to run a 6pm when it's already getting up to 80 degrees. And lastly, the 'creepy' people that I'm always on the lookout for are surely snoozing away at this early in the morning!

The best part of it all? I'm DONE working out for the day by about 7am! I get to go home, relax and leisurely enjoy dinner with my husband!

Stay tuned. Morning run #2 being tested tomorrow morning.

5/21 UPDATE! My second morning run was just as strong and I again feel great having already completed that for the day. The problem I'm facing, however, is temperature. It's about a 10-15 degrees difference from the beginning of my run to the end so I'm trying to get that all worked out currently! Suggestions?

5/22 UPDATE! My third morning run was awesome.... again. I found an outfit that was a bit cooler by the end of my run and just sucked it up for the chilliness towards the beginning. Tomorrow, though, I'm letting myself sleep in an hour and running at 7am instead of 6am!

5/23 UPDATE! Stretched it to a 5 mile run today! Felt so good.

5/24 UPDATE! No running! Race day tomorrow

5/25 UPDATE! Ran the 8K in under 48 minutes which for me is great! The weather was amazing and the tiny rain sprinkles felt so revitalizing during the run!

Double Graduation Day

What a crazy day Sunday was! We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off so that we wouldn't miss a thing for either Matt or Whitney's graduations.

Phase 1 - Architecture Lunch at the Kansas Union in Lawrence.
We started the day with a delicious meal and listened to some great speakers before seeing Matt get robed for his Masters in Architecture degree.

Phase 2 - Pictures.
Next was the traditional graduate pictures on campus. Bill Self even stopped by to get the annual pictures with the graduating senior players. The weather was perfect and we captured some great photos.

Phase 3 - Walk the Hill.
After pictures, we ran down to get a spot on the hill in order to see Matt make this traditional walk.


Phase 4 - The Rush to Kemper
The second Matt passed us on the hill, we (literally) ran to the car, loaded the family up and quickly drove to Kemper Arena for Whitney's graduation. I captured this video of her receiving her diploma from her father as she walked the stage covered in honors cords and medals.


Phase 5 - Dinner
After Whitney's celebration, we rushed over to The Bristol at P&L to enjoy a nice, family dinner filled with memories, laughs and gifts for the two graduates.


To Matt and Whit -
Although these two paths have come to an end, we look forward to the next steps you take in life. You have shaped us both in ways you'll never know and we will always be here for support, encouragement and a shoulder to lean on. We are so proud of your accomplishments and know that you will do great things in the future. Congratulations again on your graduations!!

Blood, Sweat and Determination

The picture to the left inspired what would be a year of hardcore running, biking, lifting, counting calories, and endless crunches. After seeing this shot, I realized that I had indulged in too many sweets, ate too many fatty foods and had let myself go. Looking at that picture that my grandchildren would most likely see someday woke me up to the reality that (gasp).... I had turned into a Fatty McFatterson and something needed to change.

Thus, the journey was set in motion. Equipped with perfectly fitted top of the line running shoes from Gary Gribbles, the running began. It was pretty sluggish at first, only running a couple of miles very slowly. Eventually I got up to about 3 miles and by early fall the nonstop running, biking and lifting eventually helped me shed 15 total pounds.

This was not enough.

I set a new goal of 20 pounds and began to work out a little more and eat a little healthier. As of this past January, I had reached a plateau and couldn't quite get to that 20 pound mark. This is when I began counting every calorie consumed. It was an extremely eye-opening task that put into perspective how much more I was eating than I had thought. I did a lot of research in order to figure the total calories I should eat daily at to continue losing weight in a healthy way. Finally, I reached that 20 pound mark, but yet, still was not satisfied. I buckled down even more and stopped splurging on food on the weekends and even upped my workouts yet again. My runs became 3-4 miles and I became faster (despite a few clumsy falls that left me with bloody knees!).



Finally, this past week, I hit the 30 pounds lost mark (actually 31)! I even called Watkins at KU to retrieve my weight each year I was in college and I'm officially lower than I ever was. I believe I am actually a lower weight than I was in high school seeing as how I've never fit into into a size 2 before that I can remember! I now weigh the "white lie" weight that has been on my drivers license for roughly 8-10 years. It is actually fun to shop now and I've fallen in love with a bunch of new, healthy foods! Even more impressive, though, are the pants in this picture that I actually wore 18 months ago. The pic doesn't do justice, but they aren't just big.... they are GYNORMOUS and could probably fit Derek now that he's lost weight too!

Needless to say, I do want to shed these last 4-5 pounds and tone up a bit more, but then I'm done. At that point, I (hopefully) will be 100% happy with my body and actually feel comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my adult life.

Bad Parenting 101

This saga begins on Sunday afternoon when the weather was nice and we figured that our 4-legged girls would enjoy some time at the park! It hadn't been too rainy, but they both closed right in on the one tiny area where the mud pit always exists. It must be the coolness they feel on their legs wading in the gross, swampy area, but it never fails that they leave the park a dirty mess. Once we got home, we bathed them out back with baby shampoo so that they would smell fresh and look sparkling to see both "grandmas" the next day on Mothers Day!

The weekend continued on, but when my parents came over on Sunday, we all started noticing that Bailey's tail wasn't wagging. (Anyone who's met this dog before knows what I mean when I say that tail is never down!). She is the happiest dog in the world and is constantly wagging her tail at everything! We decided to keep an eye on her as sometimes her tummy gets upset from eating too much grass, eating mulch, etc. It wasn't until 10pm Sunday night that we would realize what happened and what we did to our child.

As Derek was googling "limp tail", he came across several websites that suggested several terms like "dead tail" and "limber tail". We had no idea how that could have happened until we saw the site for "cold water tail". Basically, the water that we bathed her with outside on Saturday was too cold (even though it was 75 degrees out!) and caused the muscles to temporarily paralyze around the base of her tail. Hunting dogs sometimes have this often when they are constantly retrieving from cold water. Cold Water Tail can last just a few days to 2 weeks and can "be somewhat painful for the animal".


Our hearts sank when reading this (among some guilty laughing for realizing what we did to her) and I thought to myself that it's probably a good thing I don't have a real baby right now!
Bailey did slightly wag her tail this morning and we're making sure she's not too stimulated to let that tail rest. Equipped with Tylenol and lots of snuggling, this little girls tail should be back in no time!

Mothers Day Weekend

On Saturday morning, I kicked off the weekend by volunteering with my sister-in-law, Whitney and my friend, Morgan for the Humane Society. We helped walk some puppies in the Spirit of Mission Days parade. The picture to the right is of the wiener dog float that the Humane Society uses for parades. It takes about 10 people to walk this thing down the street and is quite a site. The parade was all of a half mile and the weather was perfect so it was easy work to be done!
On Saturday night, we ventured down to Comedy City in Westport with Whitney and Pat to watch the 10pm "adult improv act". The show was made up of six guys about 24-28 years old and was 100% improv as the audience helped create the story lines.
Overall, a funny show and Whit and Pat got to both try their first flea. What is a flea you ask? It's pretty much 1200 calories of goodness. Probably the biggest burger around, it's delicious greasy flavor and gynormous size make for a great food splurge that one must indulge in once and a while!

Sunday was a great Mothers Day with both sides of our family. We grilled out honey ginger salmon and corn around noon for my mother and then enjoyed some traditional card games. Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner and a movie (Star Trek) at the Fork and Screen with the Derek's side.

I ended up baking a small strawberry cake for each side of the family with a whipped vanilla frosting!

Thanks again mothers for being who you are and doing what you do. Your selfless caring and endless support helped mold us into who we are today. We love you both very much. Happy Mothers Day!

This stuff is POTENT!

Derek has urged me to get some mace or pepper spray for a while now to carry on my runs. I finally found a place that carries this stuff and picked some up this week. Yesterday I decided to get out the bubbles in the can just like you need to do with any new spray.

I sprayed a small portion directly into the kitchen sink hole with hot water to flush it immediately down. Needless to say, that did NOT do the trick. Within seconds, just from a tiny bit floating in the air my nose stung and I was coughing. I rushed outside and left for my run, only to arrive 50 minutes later to the sight of Derek hacking up a storm on the front porch. Apparently this stuff is crazy strong and I can't imagine the pain one suffers when being sprayed in the eyes.

I LOVE my new secret weapon to use for when Derek is getting testy.....Just kidding babe!

Happiest Day in April

On Thursday evening, as I sorted through the mail, I find an envelope from Sears. Thinking it's junk mail, I rip it open quickly and begin to quickly scan through before it hits the trash can. The words, however, that I began to see were so exciting that I just have to start re-reading. Only then did I realize that this letter was the answer to my prayers.

Before I continue, let's back up almost 3 years. Derek and I purchased our Kenmore Oasis washer and dryer from Sears in 2006 when we bought our house. From the first load, the washing machines control board had problems. When you begin a load, it will beep and show some error message until you press "stop", then "start" again. Repeat 5-6 times. Then, at minute 18 the vicious cycle begins again. As you've figured out, you can't leave the house when doing laundry. You have to be available non-stop and it's the biggest chore ever to baby that machine. No, it wasn't covered in the warranty. Yes, there were hundreds of websites with others having this problem. And nope, a new control board costs just as much as a new machine so that was out of the question.

Back to Thursday night. The letter was the results of thousands of people complaining about this "non-fixable" problem with our "non-cheap" machine's. Sears finally decided to do something about it and will be sending a brand new, upgraded control board to the house and then installing it for free!!

I still can't believe it, and won't, until it's actually installed and I've done my first load - BEEP FREE! Until then, my fingers and toes and everything else are crossed that my three years of washing machine agony could be almost over!