A BIG Challenge

I am going to try to challenge myself to not step foot inside Walmart for a month.  I hate going there.  I always spend too much money when I go there and I always come out with crap I don't need.  The only exception to this rule is going to be if we have an emergency in the middle of the night when no other stores are open.  Of course, I hope this doesn't happen, but just when I go to do something like this, it will.

Stores I will be frequenting are:
Dollar General
Aldi
Kroger
Family Dollar
Target (30 min away so very rarely)
CVS
Walgreens

I hardly ever go to CVS, but I may need to for pictures.  I am ticked at Walgreens Photoshop so I'm taking my business across the street.

I'm so excited about this.  I can't even tell you how much I hate Walmart.  I have been wanting to do this for so long and now I've gotten the balls to do it.  I'm going to stress to Neil that he should refrain, but I can't control where he goes when he's not with me.  LOL!!!

I'm also going to try to start getting back into my couponing.  I'm not going crazy and I'm only buying things I need, not just because I have a coupon for it.  If it can save me $5-$10 per trip, it's so worth it.

I'll try post on my experiences throughout the month and let you know if it was hard to do or no big deal at all!

Back Posts - Neil's Birthday

I've been meaning to post several things in the last couple months and just have had no time to do so.  So I'm gonna do the best I can to get it done in the next little bit.

April was Neil's birthday.  I asked him what kind of cake he liked the best and he told me strawberry.  So I did what most awesome wives do and found the best strawberry cake recipe ever...Paula Deen.  MMMMMMMMMM......

I ended up getting frozen strawberries and letting them thaw and then adding a little strawberry syrup because I couldn't find the strawberries in the syrup.  I may have added a little too much syrup because the cake was a little more dense than I anticipated, but it actually turned out GREAT.  You can't see it that good in this pic, but I got so caught up, I forgot to take the cake's portrait.

Week of supper...hopefully!

So I'm traveling for work again and i'm tying to make some supper for all the nights I'll be gone. I'm make lasagna with ground turkey sauce and have stuff for Lila and daddy to make whole wheat tortilla pizzas. They should be able to make it, right? :)

May...in pictures

I have just not had enough time to update my blog...at all.  All I can say is, it's been a busy month.

Lila is talking so much now.  She is actually speaking in 3-4 word sentences now.  I can't believe how big she is getting.  We can sit and have little conversations now.  I love it.  She also loves kitties...I mean loves them.  When we ask her if she wants Mommy and Daddy to have another baby, she said "yeah".  Not that it's coming anytime soon...just to clear that up.  She also tells us that she wants a sister, which upsets Neil.  LOL  :)

She plays plays plays!!  She is busy and moving all the time!

Uncle Capel and Lila "smiling".  She loves her Uncle Capel

Cheese!!!!!!

Just hangin' out

Baby Samuel's Shower!

Daddy and Lila swimming

Ally and Lila

Swim time at Nanna's

Mother's Day

Being silly at Grandma Jane's pool

The Marathon

I just wanted to update you on how my marathon went and kinda give you a play by play of what went on.

We really made a weekend out of it.  Neil, Lila, and I left town to make our way to Nashville on Friday morning.  We got there and immediately went to the expo to get my number, t-shirt, gear back, etc.  The expo was awesome.  They had so many cool vendors there.  I could've stayed for hours if it weren't for Neil and Lila being ready to go! :)

I made whole grain spaghetti with marinara and LOTS of bread that night.  We stayed at our friend's house (Kyle and Blair) and had a great time, as usual.  Saturday morning 5:00 came pretty quick. Got up, got ready, ate my oatmeal, drank a cup of coffee to get myself up (and ensure that I would poop before the race and not have to stop during), got Lila up and ready, gear check, check again, and check again.  I think we were ready.

Thank God we had Kyle with us that morning because he got us exactly where we needed to be at the start avoiding almost all traffic.  It was so unlike my three experiences in the past.  Talk about a cluster...32,000 runners, plus those coming to watch them start equals MASS CHAOS!  Got to my corral and then found my best friend of the morning, the porta potty!  After standing in line and almost pooping my pants for about 20 minutes, I finally made it.

Porta Potty Line

Before the Start

Working up to the start...waving at Lila :) 

Ready to GO!!

By then, the race had started, but since I was in Corral 12, I still had plenty of time.  We made our way to the start line and then...."The Dirty Dozen" as the announcer called us took off with the blow of an air horn!  WOW....my adrenaline was going crazy.

Corral 12  Ready. Set. Go!!!!

Then it hit, my oh so infamous side stitch.  BLAH!!  I should've expected this.  Miles 1-6 or so were run with a side stitch.  What a great way to start off 26.2 miles.  I knew that it eventually had to go away because I vaguely remembered this happening last time except not for as long.

I was actually feeling pretty good about mile 10 and then there was "the split".  The split occurs a little after 11 miles.  The split is where the half-marathoners go one way...to the finish line...and the marathoners realize that they aren't even half-way done.  At that point it's all mental. Thankfully Neil, Kyle, and Lila were there to make me smile and push me on.  I even got a kiss from Lila!

Miles 12-16 were pretty lonely.  The runners had thinned from the split and it was in a part of town were there weren't very many spectators.  This makes it hard.  When there are people there cheering you on, it's easier to keep going.  Again, the mental part is the hardest part for me.  I just had to keep going.  If I just kept running, it had to get over sometime.  :)

Somewhere between mile 17-18 I was blessed with seeing not only Neil, Kyle, and Lila again, but my wonderful mom and step-dad.  They will probably never know how good it was to see them at that point.  Just knowing that my family came to support me meant so much to me!  I really got me through the next few miles.

Around 18 I started breaking down.  I knew I would.  I was actually pretty surprised that I hadn't broken down before that.  The next 8 were really hard for me.  I stopped and walked a little bit (about a minute) each mile between 18 and 24.  After the water station at 24, I told myself that if I stopped and walked again, I would never start running again and walking across the finish line was NOT an option for me.

So I just did it!  I talked to more people during those two miles than I had throughout the entire race.  Lots of words of encouragement.  Mile 25 was mostly uphill.  What kind of psycho crazy people make the last couple miles go uphill?!  I made it through then I saw it...the finish line.  I was so happy to see it, although it didn't take long to remember that the finish line didn't really mean anything.  I still had to walk all the way through the line, where there was food, drink, picture opportunities (really who wants that after running 26.2?), and then I had to get to Neil.  All I wanted to do was get off my feet.

Once I laid there for a few minutes in the grass and just let my body rest, haahahahahahah, I found I could get back up.  Then we had to go find my mom and Denzil.  Oh the joys of seeing people you know after a race like that.  All in all, it went ok.  It was much harder during the race this time around and at the finish I said that one was definitely my last, but the healing process has been so much better this time, thanks to a friend of mine, Verlinda Henshaw, who came and worked me over, that I'm not quite sure if I'm done with marathons now.  Neil is gonna kill me.  I do, however, think I will do some halves in between this marathon and the next one, just to kinda keep my mind sane!  :)

Final Stats

After the race, we enjoyed some food, beverage, and music on Broadway at Legends and Margaritaville.  Lila LOVED the music.  We had lots of fun.

Lila and Daddy at Legends

Mommy and Lila at Margaritaville

We put a signed dollar bill up at the bar at Margaritaville.  We are huge Parrotheads!!

Our Date Nights

For Valentine's Day, I gave Neil a box of twelve envelopes.  Inside of each is a date card.  It's something for us to do at any time during that month to spend time together.  Some of them are things to do at home, some are go out on date cards, but there is one for each month. With Neil in school, it's hard for us to find time to do this!  We are squeezing them in and enjoying the time together.

February was a spa night.  This one is still on hold...

March was a Harry Potter marathon day/night.  We attempted this on Monday, but only made it through two of the movies.  This on may have to be a continuous date.  It just didn't work out as great as we thought.  Something always comes up.  A friend of mine came over that morning to work my soreness out from the marathon and Neil went to the gym during that.  Then he had to take Ringo, our lab, to the vet for an infection he got from our other dog biting and scratching him.  Then we went out to eat for lunch.  Next thing we knew it was time to pick up Lila from daycare and God knows we can't watch what we want when she's home. LOL  So we will continue that "date" in the future.

April was a date at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Cardinals.  We did that one and it was great!  My favorite so far!  We both tried the Leinenkugel Summer Shandy beer and it was really good!  Neil also took me to get some new gear for my marathon.  What a lovely night!  We took like 10 pictures and I still couldn't get myself to look normal!  Geez....

Stay tuned for upcoming date nights.

Little Lila, Big Girl

I know, I know. It's been forever! I've been so busy with everything! Some updates on our little girls and the things she's doing. She is so crazy!

I've just noticed a bunch of little things in the past few weeks that she has been doing and I can't help but crack up at her. She learns so much, so fast. She now sings along with songs on the tv and has certain dance moves for songs we sing in the car. She knows I'm impressed because she looks at me and cracks up when she's doing it, like "Mom, you didn't know I could do this, did you?".

She is also repeating everything and saying please and thank you. We are quite proud of that. She tells me "I'm done", "all gone", "candy", and much more.

Just last night she said two things that just cracked me up. We were on a bike ride and Neil was walking his bike to the gas station to fill up the tires an we took a different route for a block. While we weren't with him she said "daddy, are you?". I couldn't believe it. We never taught her this. She had to have learned it from daycare or on TV. Then, not an hour later she was playing with her chalk and put them through a hole in the steps of her slide. The she stuck her head through and said "I see you". I was dying! Again, we never taught her this. It's just so funny how much they learn so fast and easy!

This weekend is marathon weekend! I'm blogging from my phone now on the way down to Nashville. I'm excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. Wish me luck. Hopefully my next blog will be an update on how the marathon went!