End of 2010

What a year. A lot happened but I also felt like my head was in the sand. Looking back, I accomplished a lot. I ran my first 1/2 and full marathon. L started kindergarten and Jeff is almost done with his master's.

I didn't feel like I accomplished much on my 2010 goals, so I am keeping them the same for 2011. I also slacked off a lot on my blog. I resolve to try and update it more often.

For the past two years, I've picked a word for the year. 2010 was patience.

** My 2011 word is BALANCE**

I do a lot. I'm a wife, mother, physician assistant, pet keeper, cleaner, cooker, scrap booker, reader....the list goes on. I want to find time for all things, but not feel stretched. I want to appreciate L more and spend quality time with her. So I'll keep you updated on my progress. I'll be working on updating the blog tonight and tomorrow (which means my book list will go...write the title down if you want to read it).

Take care and Happy New Year!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

1 Day til Christmas...

The presents are all under the tree. The stockings are filled and a little girl is sleeping snug in her bed, visioning lots of presents from Santa. The rest of the family is asleep, except Jeff and I, who are finishing up a couple things.

Have a good night and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2 Days Til Christmas

It's almost here...and I am so ready. Today is our traditional day of the girls going out for pedicures. L's nails look the best-she got snowmen and reindeer on her fingers. My mom and I had a great chat. We finished a couple errands then settled in at home for the afternoon. Mom and dad took us out to PF Chang's for supper. Delicious! L is in the mode of I can't wait until Christmas.

I think all the errands have been run. Going to do some baking tomorrow.

4 and 3 Days Til Christmas

This daily blog thing is difficult. I don't know how people do it.

4 Days Til Christmas: my Friday. Work went by fairly quickly. We went to the Shocker game last night and they beat Tulsa by 3! Great game! Everyone had a great time.

Today: we went shopping. Victoria's Secret, Scrapfunattic, butcher to get the ham. That was a sample of what we did. It was fun, but I'm glad we are home. I am pooped! Tonight is low keyed. Homemade ziti and some time chilling at home. Looking forward to it.

5 Days Til Christmas

Today was a work day. I got somewhat caught up on my work. I got home tonight and my mom and dad ARE HERE!!!! My mom looks great. I'll post a picture soon. We have had fun playing and visiting tonight. Gotta run!

6 Days Til Christmas

My dad kindly reminded me I didn't post yesterday. My defense is yesterday was my catch up day. I woke up early and started wrapping. Reggie tried to help me....she almost got wrapped! L woke up awhile later and was feeling good. We wrapped presents for a bit and had a quiet breakfast. She had a birthday party in the afternoon and I got busy and cleaned house. A quick early supper with friends at Jose Pepper's and then we were back home to wrap.

We finished up the night going to Heartspring Lights on the Lake. It was very pretty. Our friend,Dan, was Santa for the night. L had a great time telling her wishes and Kam was freaked out!

7 Days Til Christmas

Today brings a much healthier me and L is sleeping the day away. Her vomiting has ceased but she feels yucky. She needs to be better by tomorrow so she can go to her boyfriend's birthday party.

I was very productive. I bought out Target. Except someone beat me to fresh cranberries. How do you run out of cranberries before Christmas? Any way, I took a little break and then finished up my Christmas shopping. YippEEE!! Now I need to have a marathon wrapping session.

Only 2 days until my parents will be in town (mom,dad I know you're reading this. I expect you to be on your way tomorrow). I should have time to clean house and wrap. For now, I will relax by the fire and watch KSU basketball.

8 Days Til Christmas...

HALT!!!! I have things planned, but unfortunately, I got food poisoning (or a 24 hour bug). I vomited so much Friday morning that I called in sick. As the day went on, I felt better and my co workers really wanted me to come to the Christmas party, so I went. We had a good time...for 90 minutes. Then I got sick, at the restaurant!!! AHHHH. Jeff says it's ok because the owner treats us like best friends. I am still a little embarrassed.

So we came home to find that L had just vomited. Ick. So I sent Jeff out to do a little Christmas shopping and L and I hung out together. It was a long night, hence the lateness in my blog post.

9 Days Til Christmas...

What a busy day! Work went by quickly. Everyone is in the Christmas spirit. The kids all tell me they are good enough for Santa to visit. Tonight, we went Christmas shopping. I did a little clothes shopping at Kohl's as well. L was wonderful!! Apparently she's got the good bug in her. I'm making headway. Next on the list? Come up with a grocery list for the next 10 days. Even better news??? My parents will be here in 4 days instead of 6!!!

10 Days Til Christmas

So I know this is a few hours late. My excuse is TSO played until almost 11 pm. We watched them at Intrust last night and it was awesome!!! I have picture and will post soon. The lights and effects that go with their show is great! What a great way to spend the 10th day til Christmas.

11 Days Til Christmas...

Today was a busy day at work. Nothing super exciting, just lots of patients. The kids are getting excited about Christmas break. Tonight we went to the library to take back and check out new books. Not Christmas stuff, but it was nice to have a quiet evening. It will be the last quiet evening for a week. Should have gotten more done...no worries, it will still be there tomorrow. I finished a great book called "My Name is Memory". If you like Time Traveler's Wife, you'll like this book. It's about a man who is reincarnated several times and remembers all of his past lives and he has a favorite girl from his first life that he keeps meeting.

Tomorrow....TSO in concert! Yea!

12 Days Til Christmas

It's 12 days till Christmas and I'm going to do a 12 part series (that's a challenge in itself-can I blog that often). So stay with me and see if I get it done!

The house is decorated, the tree is up. There aren't any lights on outside (poor Jeff spent the weekend grading and finishing his master's classes). The gift list has been made and a few gifts have been bought. I'm planning my strategy for the upcoming days. Today, not much will be done, we have a WSU basketball game to attend. I've given up on the thought my Christmas cards will be out early...I'm thinking somewhere between Christmas and New Year's will work.. And it's all good. In 10 days my parents will arrive-that's my real present.

Isn't she freakin adorable?

Las Vegas marathon

Last weekend, I went with 12 other people to Sin City to run my first marathon. We had a great time! Here's the view from our window. We were on the 30th floor. You can see the mountains in the background.
The first day we were in Las Vegas, we went to the expo. Unfortunately, we walked a lot to get there (4 miles). But we got to see several sites on the strip. It is so beautiful on the strip. I could spend a whole day just taking pictures of the strip.
Treasure Island. It was across the street from the expo.
The night before the race, we went to the hotel's pasta party. We took several table pictures. Shirley was running partner for training. She didn't run in the marathon, just cheered us on with her husband (they celebrated his retirement from Cessna).
The group. From the bottom left: Michelle, Shirley, Judy, Carla. Second row (l-r): Sherrie, Kathryn, Christie, Cathy and Ken (at top).
I don't have any pictures of the marathon. They will come later. So I'll narrate for you. The first half was beautiful. We ran down the strip and back. Just watching all the people, the crowd and the beautiful buildings, made 13 miles fly by. The second half: was grueling. I did well until mile 16, had to walk a little more than planned, got back in the groove and crapped out at mile 19. I didn't hurt more than normal, but my head kept messing with me. A non -runner would say, 19 miles...you only have 7 to go. But in my mind, I'm thinking, 7 effing miles!! I'm never going to get done. But after a few tears, I got back into the swing of things. I got frustrated once more at mile 22, but then I ran the last 3 miles without problem. I was so happy to be done at 26.2! My official time was 5:26:04. I'm happy with that time (a PR for me!). And after taking a week off, I'll be back to running Sunday mornings. Just not as long :).

Decorating the Tree

Apparently it's been so long since I've blogged with multiple pictures that I forgot Blogger puts my pictures in opposite order. Thanksgiving weekend we decorated the tree. L was very helpful in putting up the tree, stringing lights and putting on ornaments. We had a great time and it seemed like the fastest the tree has been put up!