Bunnies on Parade

Well, last night I went and met my running group at RunnersWorld and got in a few miles. On Thursday nights before we run, we have the passing of the bunny slippers. The bunnies are sort of an inspirational trophy and the holder of the bunnies gets to keep them for a week and do something fun with them before passing them along to another person who has inspired them in some way. So far, the bunnies had a night out on the town, thanks to Carmie; they made a baby bunny, thanks to Brenda; and they celebrated Memorial Day at a cookout with Susan. Now it is my turn! Susan passed the bunnies off to me because she admired my comeback after my break (and later told me that she wants to run as fast as me!) I'm not particularly fast, but it helped to remind me that even when you don't think you're doing anything special, you just never know who you may inspire! I already have a pretty good idea of who I will be passing the bunnies to next week, and I'm sure they will be very surprised!! But in the meantime, what will I do with the bunnies??

PS: If you click on the picture, it will open up to a bigger size and you can see my beautiful teeth!!

Corn-on-the-cob

So... last night for dinner I had corn-on-the-cob for the first time in 2 1/2 years! That's right, folks! My braces have come off!!!

They actually came of on Tuesday afternoon, but it was a bit painful so I had to wait until yesterday for my corn. And I learned 2 very important lessons yesterday...

1. I need to buy some Corn-Cobbers. If it weren't for my amazing friend, Becky, I would have been eating my corn with my hands.
2. I need to practice my corn-cooking skills. I'm a pretty decent cook, but when you haven't made something in 2 1/2 years, you tend to get a little rusty.

I slathered some butter on it, put some salt and grill spices on it, wrapped it in foil and had my hubby throw it on the grill. Would have been much better if I'd used a little more spices and if it had stayed on the grill a little longer.

But all-in-all it was pretty good. And now that I can actually eat it, I will get plenty of practice. My poor hubby's going to hate me in a few weeks!

I'll try to get a picture posted of my new beatiful smile! I know the mystery blogger over at RunnersWorld Tulsa. Maybe I can get him to take a picture for me!

P.S. Feel free to share your favorite corn-on-the-cob recipes with me!!

Time flies by...

Wow... Time seems to be flying by. I don't know where the weekend went, because I sure don't feel like I accomplished anything - and May - where did that go?!?!?! I can't believe that Memorial Day is in one week!

I didn't even realize that I haven't posted anything since last Monday. I can't figure out where last week went either! I know I went and ran on Tuesday and Thursday, but the rest of the week is pretty much a mystery!

Anyway, back to the weekend! I had every intention of getting up early on Saturday and going to volunteer at the Aquarium Run 1/2 Marathon and 5K. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well that night and opted to keep sleeping when my alarm went off! I went to the store to pick up some stuff to make for a party on Saturday night, did some work in my garden, took a shower, and proceeded to start making party food. I have decided that I need a stand mixer. I've always thought they looked cool, but now I need one. I have an old (probably from the '70's) food processor/blender/stand mixer, but it is horrible for mixing. I was trying to make Trisha Yearwood's Cheese Straws - which are basically homemade "cheese-its" and I ended up looking like Chester Cheetah puked all over my kitchen. It was not a pretty sight. I finally got the mixture together, but had issues getting it to shape like a straw, so I ended up making what looked like peanut butter cookies. A few people at the party were pretty confused even though I tried to tell everyone that they weren't cookies. I hope to make them again sometime, but I definitely need better tools to work with!

So, the party - which was supposed to be my hubby's coworkers and spouses - was pretty fun. We cooked out, drank, played volleyball in the dark... good times! Unfortunately, some people brought extra friends with them. Normally, I wouldn't have a problem with this, but one of the extras was a cop from a nearby town and he was trashed and carrying a loaded gun around. If you're a cop - show some responsibility. Don't bring a loaded gun into someones house - especially if you're drinking! What an idiot. Then, Mr. Responsible's girlfriend tried to steal my sunglasses! Seriously people - grow up! Just because I'm having a good time and goofing around does not mean that I'm too drunk or too stupid to realize that my shades are gone. Whatever...

And even though we got home at 2am, we still got up and went to Church on Sunday, which was a very nice treat. It was "Confirmation Sunday" which meant that the 8 youth who have been in Confirmation this year were graduating into full church membership. They put on the entire service themselves - including a short drama that was a knockoff of "LOST" (my fave show ever!!). They really did a great job and I'm glad I didn't miss it! After lunch I went home to work on my garden, but I didn't get very far. Decided to rest and chat with my neighbor - then we went and got her hammock out of storage and set it up and relaxed while our hubbies grilled some burgers.

All in all, a pretty decent weekend. I'm hoping this week goes by just as fast, since I'm scheduled to have my braces off next Tuesday! I can't wait!!

Happy Monday!

So, there's nothing particularly special about today, but I'm hoping for a good week!

I did have a nice and productive weekend, so I'm feeling happy about that.

Friday night, we had a trivia night at our church. We did okay... not the worst team, but not the best either. I think we were somewhere in the middle. It was a lot of fun, and I'll definitely participate again. They also had a live and silent auction which was pretty fun too - I "won" a $50 gift card to Panera and 4 tickets to any regular season Oilers hockey game for the 2008-2009 season. I love hockey!

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to take my dog to the groomer and my husband to work - by 7am! I proceeded to go home, get some cleaning and laundry done, and go do some Mother's Day reconn shopping for my hubby and then picked up the dog and hubby by 10am. Went home dropped of the dog, got hubby cleaned up and went to have skin cancer screenings done, went back to the Pretty Penny and showed hubby previously reconned M. Day gift which we then purchased. Headed back towards home with the intent of grabbing some lunch but McD's lobby was closed and drive-thru was way too long. Then attempted Wendy's which was also massively croweded, and bailed on that idea. We ended up stopping at Wally World for some T.P. and got some food to go from the McD's inside. After lunch and a short nap I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some pictures that I'd had framed for my mom for M. Day, and then went home to get ready for the Full Moon Run!

The run was great! I had a clock time of 30:01 and chip time of 29:25. I had hoped to be under 30 minutes, so I'm happy with it. It was hard and the 2nd half was into the wind, which didn't help at all! We stayed around and listened to the "U2" tribute band for a while and went home around 10.

Sunday brought church, lunch with our moms, and some much needed work on my garden. I've never really felt like it was "my" garden because everything in it was planted by the previous owner and I don't have a clue what most of it is. So now that I've made some headway and removed some bushes that I didn't like - it is now "my" garden (in progress!)

I wish I had taken some before pictures, and I can still get some but you won't get the full effect. I'll still be working on it most of the week, and hopefully planting my own choices this weekend, so stay tuned! I'm sure I'll plenty to say!

Running and Weather

This time, the 2 are unrelated!

Tuesday's run didn't go so well - in fact I never actually even ran. I did manage to walk about 1.5 miles - so at least I was doing something! I am not a coffee drinker - I can drink decaf but regular coffee really messes with me. I had about a 1/2 cup of regular coffee on Tuesday morning and it was NOT a good idea - I won't do that again! Let's hope today's run goes better!

If you didn't see any of the weather last night around 7pm, you really missed out! No matter how much I try to be a city girl, it won't happen - I am and always will be a country girl. When the news station informed us of a tornado warning and that the storm was headed towards us, I couldn't have gotten outside fast enough! It was too far away to see anything at that point so I very impatiently kept running in and out - checking the TV and back outside again. Something about the tornado sirens really gets me excited! When the storm spotter on the news said that he saw a funnel (not touching the ground) about 2 miles from my house, I was back outside. The storm came through pretty quickly after that and I just stood outside watching in awe as the clouds swirled above me. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy!

I took a couple pictures, but I'll have to post them later - I gotta get back to work!

Hope Rains

Saturday was my first ever trail race!! It was also my first race of 2008 and my first race since the marathon in November. The weather was a little chilly for standing around but it was perfect for running and after finishing the grueling 5K course we were treated to steak for breakfast! My time wasn't great, but I really didn't put in a full effort. I was really just out there to have fun and experience trail running - I'm hooked!! My mom came out to spectate but everyone in our running group convinced her to run. Even though she didn't have her running shoes or preferred attire, and she hadn't run in months - she placed 3rd in her age group!

Way to go, Mom!!

Trail Zombie has a much better race report (with pictures!) here.... http://trailzombie.blogspot.com/2008/05/hope-rains-trail-5k.html
but I wanted to share my 2 cents! It was a great race and I'll definitely be back next year!

Bugs... Yuck!

Oops! I left out one very important detail...

We had our house inspected last week and we have termites and carpenter ants. Super Exciting!!

Apparently there isn't any damage yet, and the termites are only in one area but we need to get rid of them - ASAP!!!!

Any recommendations (or non-recommendations) on exterminators???

T-G-I-F

Wow - this week could not end fast enough! I am so glad for the weekend and I am ready for some down time (after tomorrow's race of course!).

My long week actually started last weekend...

After work on Friday, I went and got my hair cut - yay!! I always enjoy that! I went and picked Randy up from work and we went home and after he cleaned up a bit we went to Bass Pro Shop. They have a pair of shoes that I have had my eyes on for a while, but they never have my size. After 10-15 minutes of being ignored by the man working in the shoe area (he was too busy chatting with an older gentleman and 2 young boys) one of the boys informed him that I needed to be helped. Again, they didn't have my size - not even close! I proceeded to the customer service desk to speak with a manager about the lack of assistance by his employee (and also mentioned that I'd been there twice trying to get the shoes). The manager took my information and told me he would order the shoes and that he would go address the lack of assistance with Mr. Chatty. Then we went and had dinner at Los Cabos - it was okay but not my favorite. I'm certainly not in a hurry to go back.

Saturday morning, I gave much love and attention to my poor, neglected bedroom. Nobody ever sees our room, so it doesn't get a good deep cleaning like the rest of the house. Next project = our home office (also very neglected!) We went out for a round of golf with another couple, and dinner at Osaka. Yummy!!

Sunday was by far the longest day of my life! I woke up at 2:30 am to drive to OKC to watch some friends participate in the marathon and half-marathon. It started out cold, windy, and rainy - but eventually the rain stopped. I met up with someone from my running group and we drove around tracking some of our runners. At one point we thought our coach was going to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but she missed it by 4 minutes! Her husband on the other hand set new PR at 3:27 - only in my wildest dreams will I ever come close to that! After lunch with some members of group I went shopping - which was uneventful and then headed home. Of course by this time I'd been up for about 15 hours and was ready to go to bed - so to keep myself awake for the drive home I stopped and got some sunflower seeds to eat. As long as I'm doing something, I'm okay but if I stopped eating the seeds I would get drowsy. I totally understand how people fall asleep at the wheel!! I finally made it home and had dinner with my hubby and some friends and finally got to bed around 10.

Monday was just another day at work, as was Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday were run days which I rather enjoyed, especially Thursday. Everything just seemed right! I ran my first 2 miles at about a 9 min pace and while I was a bit winded I didn't feel like I was running hard. I just got into a rythym and went with it. I chose to walk my last mile because it was so nice out and I just wanted to enjoy the weather a bit. I also got to see my momma and my precious niece Lexie for lunch on Thursday and our neighbors had us over for dinner when I got home from my run, so all in all it was a pretty great day!

And that brings us to today and the end of another week. I'm planning on running the Hope Rains 5K Cross Country run in the morning and then sitting around and relaxing.

Have a good weekend!