Christmas...with a few pictures...

Because I wanted to write a post about something other than running and my adorable dogs, I decided to give up on my younger sister mailing me a cd of all the hundreds of Christmas pictures we all took before I wrote my Christmas post.  So, there will be missing pictures (sisters in Christmas pj's, good shots of all of us, game playing, etc.), but this should give you all a good overview of the awesome time we had with my family.

Here was the main present I got from my awesome husband.  After I refused to believe him that he had bought my present already, he wrapped this up and labeled it.  It turned out to be a Wii!!  We had a lot of fun with this Christmas day and plenty of good times with it since.

While in WV, we visited a live Nativity scene.  They were short on shepherds and asked my brothers to help out.  Chaz was showing off how thrilled he was to be wearing a dress, but he was a good sport.  It was FREEZING cold outside, though, and I was glad when we could blast the heater on the way home.

Because my family loves to be different, we made a gingerbread barn instead of a house this year.  Daddy was the master piper for the construction and Kass took over most of the piping from there.  Jess put together the fence with a hot glue gun, and everyone else tossed out ideas and threw on decorations.

The end result was pretty darn cute!

Another tradition for special occasions in Dad making breakfast.  On pancake morning, one lucky person makes the "last pancake."  This pancake is the size of a frying pan.  Kass got it this year and managed to finish it off with "Eye of the Tiger" playing in the background.

As always, we made Christmas cookies.  I had been collecting decorations for weeks previous to it.  This was my tree.

One of my brothers cut out two hearts - one for my parents, one for Devin & me.  This was ours.

In addition to the traditional cookie shapes, we have a few unique ones.  This year, Tanner insisted on using a Halloween cookie cutter to make a Holy Ghost cookie.  We also do cacti, steer, and cowboy hats.  Kass gave me a hippo cookie cutter (loooooove it!!), and this was one of the two cookies I made with it.

Christmas Eve, we took the annual photo.  I loved Kate's insistence on wearing blue to "symbolize the night sky over Bethlehem."  Mostly, I just love that she's not afraid to be different.

I also never thought that I was that much taller than my sisters, although I always knew I was the tallest.  Here, it looks extremely obvious.  It is a good picture of us, though.

Here are my three brothers posing.  The ones of them with Devin are on the cd Jess is supposed to send me.  This was a surprisingly good picture, though!

Here, Devin joined my in wearing a "Christmas Costume."  For years, my sisters and I have gone to elaborate lengths with the outfits we sleep in and wear Christmas morning.  Devin has been a good sport about it since joining the family.  Since I don't have any sister pics from this year, here are a few from a couple years back.



I'm sorry this post was almost a month delayed!  It was after all a wonderful Christmas!  Maybe next year I'll have a better collection of pictures, with a more timely post...love you Jess!

You know you're a runner if...

* You plan your Friday Date Night dinner around how long your run will be on Saturday.

* You can legitimately debate the difference between Gu Energey Gel, Clif Shot Gel, and Powerbar Gel.  As a bonus, you may also be able to debate Gu Chomps or Clif Bloks.

* You spend the rest of the day after a long run counting your calories in a good way.  i.e. "If we go ahead and order some Papa John's, that will finally get us out of the whole put us in positive calories for the day."

* You have purple toenails.  Even if you keep you nails short...and then bought new new shoes...and then clipped the nails shorter...and then tried to file them even shorter.  Then, you gave up and accepted the color.

* You have tried lacing your shoes at least three different wys to attempt to relieve a pressure spot on the top of your foot.

* You have completed an 8 mile run and was able to manage at least half of a smile afterwards!

I love that I can finally call myself a runner!

Another 3 Day Weekend

For the third weekend in a row, I had three days off.  Really, I have no idea how I ended up being so lucky, but it will make a full week next week rather tough.  Each of these weekends has been wonderful--dinner with friends, sleeping in, time with my husband and dogs.  But, this was has to have been my favorite.  A quick recap:

Friday, Devin and I went on a long planned date.  Since we started dating, we have shared a love for the comedian Brian Regan.  In fact, I think it was one of the things we discussed during the first and only facebook chat we ever had.  When we learned that he would be performing in Augusta, we knew we had to go.  So, after a fun hibatchi dinner, we parked 5 or 6 blocks from the Bell Auditorium.  After regularly walking 30 plus minutes to a Georgia game, we didn't expect there would be anything closer.  But, we were in Augusta's downtown, not Athen's, and passed about 387 spots on our way there.  Once we had warmed up again, it was an awesome show.  Brian's brother Dennis went on first.  All told, it was nearly a 2 hour show.  And, we never went more than a few breaths without laughing.  I would pay to see him again.  And again. And again.

Saturday, I had hit the 6 mile run point in my half marathon training.  This was done on a treadmill because it was just a little too windy for me to run outside.  I'm hoping the next couple weeks bring some nicer weather so that I can do more outdoor runs.  I also need to learn to eat better before a run.  After consulting with Devin on what a good breakfast one hour pre-run would be, I ate a pudding cup...and that's all.  Somewhere between mile 4 and 5, I ran out of energy.  I still improved my pace over my last long run, but it was a little longer than I wanted in to be.  Afterwards though, we went to Subway.  This is our favorite post run meal because their soda fountain has blue powerade--my favorite.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing and playing with our dogs.  I wore sweat pants all day.

Sunday, we of course went to church.  Afterwards, we ate an oven pizza for dinner and watched a movie.  Then, I got completely caught up on our laundry and organized our "junk drawer" in our coffee table.  I also took a bubble bath.

Monday, we were super productive.  We assembled the new attachment on Devin's grill, went shopping, and made food for dinner with friends.  I also decided that our spare room needed reorganized and spent a couple hours doing that.  All the extra boxes we've had around the house were broken down for recycling, and our Christmas decorations and another bin were moved up into the attic (which Devin rearranged yesterday as well).  I also got our storage closet reorganized..  And, we did a pretty thorough cleaning on our whole house.  All of this we before a fun dinner with friends!

This really was an awesome weekend.  Of course, I told myself to take pictures of all of it, but here's pretty much the only one I got.  Sorry!  I hope you all had just as great a weekend as me!

My Sister, My Friend



♪ I was thinking just today
About how we used to play
Barbie dolls and make-up
Tea parties dress up
I remember how we'd fight
We made up and laughed all night
Wish we were kids again
My sister my friend ♫

If it weren't for the 18 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days between us, we would have been twins.  At least, we generally acted much more like twins than just sisters.  We shared rooms, clothes, and even a bed at times.  Our younger years were spent creating secret languages and scheming to build the most awesome clubhouse, tree house, or alternative transit system imaginable.  Together, we created entire make believe worlds for our dolls, beanie babies, and barbies that never seemed to end.  I remember sneaking and staying up to watch the time turn from 9:59 to 10:00, because all the numbers changed at once on the alarm clock.  Of course, flying on a plane was never as much fun as it was when the two of us did it together. 

As we got older, we still spent just as much time together.  But, that time was spent shopping (and getting lost leaving the mall), stopping for breakfast together, and staying up waaay past ten talking.  When I left for college, you would come visit and we could cram as much fun as possible into the two or three days we had.  You were also there when I got married, flying across the country and back in a very short weekend just for me.  Then, you rearranged you travel to the family vacation this past summer to maximise our time together.

I love that you always trusted me to know everything when we were kids.  Even when I made up the answers to your random questions, you never doubted me.  You were always willing to go along with my crazy ideas and forgave me whenever I made a mistake.  You are at least as stubborn as me though and refused to be easily pushed over.  Together we have laughed, cried, celebrated, worried, cheered, and mourned.  I don't think I could have asked for a better sister or friend growing up.  Happy Birthday Kassie!

Running Gear

We are snowed in here in Augusta, GA.  I was really excited about getting a day off work, especially since Devin was off as well.  We woke up, watched our dogs play in the snow, and had hot cocoa for breakfast.  I thought the day was going to be awesome.  Then, there was an email fiasco over whether or not Devin's test would be given tomorrow still.  He decided he had better spend much of the day getting ready for it, just in case.  So, it hasn't been as fun as we thought originally, and I'm now getting cabin fever.  Is it possible to get that in one day?  I'll be missing my run this evening (which genuinely makes me sad), so here's a little update on some awesome new gear I got last week.

Since the summer of 2006, I have been running in these trusty Adidas Response TR Xs.  They were marketed to be great for trail running, and were awesome as I liked running on dirt roads.  However, they've seen better days.  With my half marathon approaching, it was time to get into some new shoes.

For Christmas, my in-laws gave me some money towards a new pair of shoes.  I went to an awesome store, Fleet Feet, to be fitted and get ones best for me.  I am now running in Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11s.  Now, I have learned a lot about running shoes and realize how perfect these are for me.

The salesman (who also runs cross country for Augusta State) insisted I wear a pair of their socks while trying on my shoes.  Then, he told me to wear the shoes out and keep the socks for free!  I enjoyed running in these and now wish I had more than one pair so that I could run in them more often.

Then, while I checked out, he tossed in a Pedometer...never really explaining why I got one of these.  I have yet to try it, but it's programmable!

This past weekend, I hit five miles!  Less than eight weeks to go until our big race...hopefully I can get back on track with my training schedule tomorrow!

My Boys

Here's a little cuteness with my boys.  Max is teething and a little more vocal right now.  This was just too adorable to keep it to myself.

While Max was having his little freak-out, Blue calmly continued to chew on his chicken rawhide.  He is looking so good in his brand new collar.

For a little more cuteness, here is Max trying to get Blue to play in the backyard.  Blue was more interested in taking care of some business first.

Also, here is Max after a meal and a lot of water.  His belly gets so big and round every time.  It has to be one of my favorite things about the puppy stage.