I AM NOW OFFICIALLY A RUNNER!!!

Saturday was the day. 5K day. I had been training for many weeks. I was pretty sure I was ready to conquer this mountain.  Last Monday, I pushed really hard and ran 3 miles in almost exactly 30 minutes.  Not an easy feat for these short legs to maintain 6 mph for 30 straight minutes...

I was lucky enough to have several ladies running with me.  Ladies from my "old" ward that I miss, but thankfully still get to associate with, maybe just a little less frequently.  Big shout out to Aleisha, Lori, Jessica, Jen, and Shelby for carpooling with, encouraging, and supporting me--you guys rock.

My original goal was just to run the whole race--no walking.  Then once I realized that goal was pretty attainable, I set a new one:  under 35 minutes.  Then after Monday, I realized that even that goal was not going to push me hard enough, so I set a new, secret goal that I didn't tell my friends.  That new goal was to beat all of them.  What can I say--I'm competitive!!!  I reached all 3 goals.  I ran my first-ever 5K in an official time of 30:25.9!!!  I ran the whole way.  I beat my next-closest friend by about a minute and a half.  AND--I got 8th place in my age group!!  Success!!

I wanted to die once I finished, probably just because I pushed super-hard, especially the last quarter-mile, or so.  But now that a couple days have passed, I'm ready to make a new goal.  I think I will run a 10K this fall, and next year for the Potato Marathon, I want to run the half marathon--why not?  I have proven I can do hard things--and that's what makes me want to keep going--that amazing feeling of setting a goal that seemed really hard and then reaching it--what a feeling!!!

 Aleisha, Lori, Jessica, Me, Jennifer, and Shelby just before the race.

Shelby, Me, Lori, and Aleisha after the race sporting our hard-earned t-shirts.

5K

I did it. Something I've always thought, "someday I'll do that...". I signed up for a 5K next month. A few of my girlfriends are doing it, too. I started "training" last week. This morning I just didn't want to. I thought, "I'll just do it tonight," knowing full well how much I despise working out in the evening. Once I got the kids in bed my desire was even less than it was this morning, but since I've committed to doing the race, I ran anyway. And I went much farther than I was even supposed to. I walked/ran the whole 3.1 miles! And I did it in 39:15 minutes. I'm hoping to shave at least 5-7 minutes off my time by race day when hopefully I can run the whole thing.
The reason I'm writing this, though (on my iPod for that matter), is so I can look back and remember how amazingly proud I am that I did something hard but so good for myself and how fantastic that makes me feel. Going to bed without doing it would have made me feel pretty crappy. Oh how I hope I can remember this feeling. I have never really been a runner, but I am determined to become one.

Easter Cuties

This year, the Easter Bunny brought the kids new church clothes. The boys all got suits and Sydney got a new dress in her favorite color. She was so excited it was modest enough that she didn't even need to wear a little white tee shirt with it. It's hard to find little girls' dresses with sleeves...but that good old Easter Bunny came through!  I never bought the older boys suits when they were little, and what a mistake that was!  Jakey was just killing me in this little 3-button number...he said he looked like Daddy and now he could go to work like Daddy (which we thought was funny since Tim never wears a suit to work...).

And don't even get me started on Little Miss--she LOVES purple and was so excited to see this dress on Easter morning! 

Here's our little stud, Ryan looking oh-so-dapper.  Can't believe he'll be 12 in 2 1/2 months!!!

And of course, Brandon, the teenager.  I had to tell him to show me some teeth in this picture--he thinks he's too cool to smile wide.  But those teeth are too nice not to show off. :)

Here they are all together.  The difference in heights is pretty funny.  Our kids are pretty spread out age-wise, but it's been perfect for us.  Love them all so much and wish they would stop growing!!!

Ball Girl

Little Girl started basketball this year...in February, to be exact.  Our school district didn't have a regular basketball season (LAME!!!), so we put her in another league.  Good news: 3 of her friends from our "old" ward (more info to come in a later post...) are also on her team.  Bad news:  this basketball schedule is interfering/overlapping with her softball team, which started about 2 weeks ago.  Such is life.

She has had a really fun time.  Her game face is pretty awesome.  She has played 2 games so far, and in the first one she surprised us all and made 2 baskets...no baskets in game #2.  She is pretty short to be a basketball player, but she gets to be the point guard and gets to handle the ball a lot, which she likes. Instead of paying for team pictures, I just had Tim take some for me with my camera, so she's only with her good friends in these pictures (Ellie, Sydney, Ashlyn, and Kylee).

Go Angels!!!

Playing catch-up

In other news, I have vowed to make this the week that I catch up on blogging.  I only had 3 posts for the year before the one earlier today...lame!  So I'm hoping to get at least one done per day, highlighting some of the fun we've been having lately.  Hoping...

The resemblance continues...

When Ryan was little, he was obsessed with trains.  He had this train sweater that he loved, and we had his pictures taken in it.  Well, as luck would have it, I actually found that old train sweater a couple months ago, and put Jake in it to take some pictures.  Here are the side-by-sides.  Jake saw the pictures of Ryan on the counter and said, "Look, it's me!"  He was a little sad when I told him, "No, that's Ryan."  They continue to look so similar!  We apparently have 2 molds--the Brandon mold and the Ryan mold, repeated in Sydney and Jake, respectively.  What's crazy is that their personalities are so similar as well.  Jake is so much like Ryan is/was, and the same can be said for Brandon and Sydney.  Weird.

Jake is staying blonde longer than Ryan did.  They are almost exactly the same age in these pictures, and Ryan's hair is slightly darker.  Other than that slight difference, they are basically twins separated by 8 years.  So glad I kept that sweater!

Recent craftiness

Last summer I stopped by a neighbor's yard sale (which I rarely do...) and found 2 old, 70's-style lamps for $3 each.  I just knew some spray paint would do wonders for them.  Enter some oil-rubbed-bronze spray paint.  And some clearance shades from Target (that are literally screaming for some burlap or fabric ruffles or something along those lines...).

 I also needed some tables to put my awesome new lamps on.  And being the cheapskate I am, I asked my mother-in-law if I could have some old 70's-style (in keeping w/ the theme, haha...) tables that were collecting dust in their shed and do whatever I felt like to them.  She said o.k. so I got out the sander and paint and gave them (well, technically only one, so far) a makeover as well.  I think it came a long way as well.  And for pretty cheap!

I think the before and afters are pretty impressive!

I'm not sure yet if I love the parts where I distressed it...I may eventually go back over some spots w/ the black paint and un-distress it just a tad.  Sometimes I go a little too crazy w/ the sandpaper...  And now that I see the oil-rubbed-bronze lamp on the black table I think it's too dark and boring, and maybe the lamp should be some fun color like red or aqua...good thing it's easy to change! 

 

Here is the after of the lamp on its new home.  You can also see that I FINALLY painted the piano room.  One less white wall in the house...hooray.  I also got slipcovers for the green and magenta couches (what was I thinking 14 years ago???) and new drapes.  I just couldn't find those pictures on my computer and I'm too lazy to take them again...  Maybe once the new carpet (Hip, hip, hooray!!!) is installed in 2 weeks, I'll take some more pictures.

Pinterest is my new favorite thing.  It's awesome.  But I have decided I need to make sure I'm DOING, not just pinning.  So last week a few friends and I got together to DO one of our pins.  We made paper roses and glued them onto twigs, then put the twigs in vases.  It's much cuter than it sounds as I'm trying to describe it!  Ours all turned out a little different based on our vases, but they all look awesome!  I found some perfect little vases from Target (seriously, that store is the best) that already had the little I LOVE YOU on it.  They look great along w/ my other little V-Day decor on my shelves in the entry.

I'm hoping we can get together once or twice a month for our "Pinterest Parties."  Not much makes me happier than spending time w/ great friends while using a glue gun. :)