Archive for January, 2009

Great conference!

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Yesterday I went to the NC Conference for Women. It was VERY empowering and uplifting! I don’t have too much time to write this morning, but wanted to add a couple things:

Lisa Ling was the opening speaker. She spoke about global issues and how we have to act. She was a very persuasive speaker!

Gov. Bev Perdue was the lunchtime speaker. They closed the airport so she could not appear but they rigged it up so she could speak by cell phone from the car driving from opening the state senate to a friend’s funeral. She has renamed the conference NC Governor’s Conference for Women. V cool.

Another session I went to talked about how to not let fear stop you from what you want to do. A lot to do w increasing self esteem: Self-esteem comes from DOING Esteemable Acts.

Susan’s bucket list

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

I made a new page tonight (Monday), but Paul won’t make it go live until tomorrow so that you, our audience, will keep being entertained on a daily basis. I think that if that is the case, you should probably go rent a movie. Our life can’t be that fun, can it? :)

Anyhow—see the tab to the right or click here to read my list. PS. I have not been diagnosed w a terminal illness.

XO,

S

Not Enough Weekend

Monday, January 26th, 2009

We had a good weekend but it went by way too fast. Susan went scrapbooking Friday night and had a good time. For me I sat at home and did NOTHING. It was nice to finally have a night where I didn’t have anything I had to do. OK, so I had plenty that I should have been doing around the house but nothing got done.

Saturday morning Tyler had a basketball game that he was very excited about. He told me before the game that he was going to get every rebound. It turned out that he was about right. There is another boy on his team that likes to get rebounds and the were about to kill each other. They were both in the game together in the 3rd period and the coach took Tyler out so the two of them weren’t playing at the same time because they were “too competitive with each other”. My mom was there and got a good laugh because I was the same way.

After the basketball game Susan and I ran 20 miles. We had a good run and the weather was really nice which made things easier. Our marathon is 19 days away and that was our last long run until the race. Our longest run that we have between now and the race is 7 miles so we are very excited! After our run we showered and went to Lauren and Elliot’s for dinner. I’m not even sure what time we left their house but I am pretty sure it wasn’t very late. We went home and went right to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and went for a ride with our friend Tamara. She called us that morning to see if we were still going because she knew we were running 20 miles the day before. I knew it was cold outside and wanted to say no (and she also wanted me to say no because of the cold) but I said we were still going. We are doing the 63 mile bike ride the day after the marathon so we have to get use to it. It was 30 degrees with a windchill of 24 when we left the house so we had a very uncomfortable ride, but Susan and I were both glad we went. I’m not sure if it was from the ride or the icing affect from being so cold but I was much looser after the ride.

After the ride Susan and I went to Biscuitville to get breakfast. When we got done ordering we had to tell the lady at the register that we really did only need two drinks and that all that food was just for the two of us. After we ate we picked up the kids, played with them, went to the grocery store, ate dinner and then it was time for bed. I need to figure out how to get 4 day weekends because that all went by way too fast.

Great book I just finished reading

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

I want to start to keep you updated on good books I am reading/have read.

Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells is excellent! It is a memoir so although I found it in the non-fiction section, it may very well fall in the category of Million Little Pieces (autobiographical fiction). It was recommended to me by my boss, Lisa Pennington. It is about her family growing up in various places, although her “formative years” were in WVa. It makes crazy look like Beaver Cleaver’s family. But as you will read on the reviews, you can tell as you read the story that she loves her parents and knows they did their best—even at their worst.

Great theme for me as I work on my step-mother skills, which some days seems like all out of a Cinderella fairy tale. Is there a fairy tale where the step mother is NOT wicked? THAT is the book I need to read.

Camera Update

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

A while back our new camera stopped working, which with Susan being a scrapbooker was a very bad thing. We called Canon about a month ago and they said to send to back because it was under warrenty. They were suppose to send us the information we needed to send it back but after a couple weeks still no information. We called back and they gave us the information over the phone this time (I don’t know why they didn’t do this at first). We got the camera back the other day and they had fixed it for free so Susan is happy again.

Basketball in NC

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

Tyler had another bball game today. Paul and I have nicknamed him “Worm” after Dennis Rodman b/c he is ALL OVER the place trying to get rebounds–even from his own team…out of bounds…before the game even starts… He also has Dennis’s shooting prowess–straight over the backboard w/out touching a thing!

But then, there is that crazy “all the kids have to play rule” so Tyler came out in the 4th qtr. Anna had brought Paul’s computer to play Webkinz (long story) and alas, hoops was a long forgotten memory, see picture below.

Basketball game, what game?

Basketball game, what game?

My Crazy Dog

Friday, January 16th, 2009

Jake watching the Dog Wisperet

Jake watching the Dog Whisperer

Jake if focused on the TV

Jake is focused on the TV

I worked at home today and Tyler was here with me. We were watching the dog whisperer and Jake sat on the couch the whole time watching with us. He wasn’t just sitting and looking every once in a while, he was really into the show. He sat there and watched intently for 40 minutes before he fell asleep during one of the commercials. I am hoping that he has learned something by watching!

Randomness

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Soooo… not much going on so not much to post. Which is FINE with us. After the madness that is party-palooza in December, January’s “boredom” is bliss.

We are still training for Myrtle Beach weekend. We might even be getting faster. Tonight we ran 9 miles in 93 minutes. I am usually a 12 min miler (and drag Paul down w me) so this was FAST for us! Plus it was about 30 degrees. ugh. Treadmill tomorrow–its supposed to be 12 in the morning. I did not move to NC for cold.

We have been watching lots of college hoops. Paul is having apoplexy over UNC’s performance lately. Can’t blame him. I don’t stay up past 8pm to watch them lose! :)

My goals? We have posted a fruit and veggie page. Check back often to see my progress. I am improving my eating habits slowly but surely thanks to Paul and his great cooking. I am attending the NC Women’s Conference in a couple weeks and very excited about that, especially as it relates to my search to be “well rounded” w/o trying to be Superwoman. I always did like Wonder Woman better anyway. I just know my goal for this week is to finally iron my khaki pants. Maybe tomorrow…

The latest reason I love my husband!

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

First of all, b/c “organizing” is now a blog tag so he is accepts this is a continual part of our life together. It really helps me keep mentally healthy! For those of you who don’t know, I tried my hand at a consulting business once, professional organizing was part of it.

Now Paul has gotten into the act. He purchased several sheets of peg board and put it up in the garage. Then he hung his bike maintenance tools (there are 4 shelves of a workbench full of them). We did this on Sat afternoon so while the kids played outside and Paul did that, I spent all that time cleaning out and organizing the garage! AWESOME! Here are the lessons we have learned:

1–Home Improvement Formula: (# hours spent on project) x (1.79) = number of trips to the home improvement store. It took us 5 trips.

2–We have found the limitation to the Honda Fit (see Laminate Flooring post). We wanted 8×8 peg boards cut in half, and after waiting 38 minutes (literally, I know I exaggerate, but I am not here) for some guy to have 27 cuts made (I counted, thinking of the entertainment you, the reader, would get out of this) we went to the car only to find out 4×4 sheets will not fit in the car.  So we returned to the store for additional cuts (this still counted as 1 trip in the formula). At least we made the man cutting the wood smile.

3–There are always unexpected surprises when you clean out a garage. Like bike tools you have been looking for, toys you didn’t know you had, and dead squirrels. Yep–I moved the steam cleaner and there it was. I think I wet my pants. Tyler offered to pick it up for us. Paul again saved the say with a Wal-Mart plastic bag and plenty of anti-bacterial soap.

Stay tuned for the building of loft storage for the garage! Whooo hoooo!!!

Looks Like I Am Going To Have To Start Stretching

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

I have been having some bad knee problems lately on our long runs so I went and saw one of the Physical Therapists that works with Susan today. Susan and I had already talked about me getting some orthotics since I have huge arches and he thought that would be a good idea. I tore cartilage in my knee about 20 years ago and he thinks it is possible that that is what is causing my problem now. He found that I am VERY tight in my hips and hamstrings which was no surprise since I don’t stretch. Susan has always gotten onto me about that and it looks like she is finally going to get her way. He gave me several stretches to do to see if that helps and if not we are going to look at other options. Lets hope the stretching works because I am guessing “other options” will be to clean my knee out surgically (they talked about doing that when I initially hurt it but I didn’t want to).