One Last Long Run

Next Saturday morning Chad and I will run in the 10 mile trail race at Milford State Park.  We both actually need to run more than 10 miles (I will need to run 2 additional miles and Chad another 4 miles) and then it will be time for me to begin tapering down during my weekend long runs.  The OKC Half Marathon is almost a month away!

Saturday my mom and I took the boys for a quick day trip to Ellsworth, KS to visit many of my cousins who were gathered at Aunt Melody and Uncle Steve's house.  I have so many great memories of playing with them and sharing lots of holidays together growing up.

Now that we are all grown, married with children and careers that have us all very busy we just don't get to see each other very often.  So I was so thankful we could make the drive and see everyone for the afternoon while Chad was busy with the continued repairs on our deck.

I have blogged several times about my cousin Emily who continues to fearlessly battle cancer.  Doesn't she look amazing???  Her strength, faith and positive attitude continues to not only inspire me to live life to it's fullest but also give me perspective in times of struggle.

I wish I would have taken more photos.... all of my cousins (and their parents) are pretty awesome people that I always love catching up with and wish I was able to see all of them more often!

Soggy Spring Break

The rain put a damper on most of our outdoor plans this week during our spring break...but it was still a great week at home with the boys. However, Chad didn't get what he wanted to accomplished on the deck due to all the rain...so it looks like he will be working on that after his 21 mile run tomorrow. He is amazing, but I wish this didn't have to dominate his weekend. But it will be nice to have our deck back (and safe) again when it is completed.

I was bad and didn't take a lot of pictures this week.  Some of our spring break stay-cation highlights included a trip to see both of my Grandma's in Marion County, a play date for Mitchell with a friend from school where we went bowling and gave ourselves cool bowling names, and watching movies on the dark and raining afternoons.  I didn't get everything done on my to-do list, but I did enjoy spending some quality time with my boys.

Believe it or not...I have also done quite a bit of cooking lately, and none of it has came from a box!

I'm not one to usually post pictures of food, but I was pretty proud of this strawberry and cream pie! And it was awesome...in fact, after the first one disappeared in a matter of hours, Mitchell requested another one. My mom and I made the second pie with fresh raspberries on top. That pie was also gone in less than 24 hours. Pinterest might have finally brought my inner Betty Crocker to the surface.


I am happy report I successfully completed that my 11 mile long run today and it went much better than last week.  My legs still felt a bit heavy, but it was a good run and I only had to stop for traffic on my route through Manhattan.  Mitchell saw me mapping the above route and said "whoa Mommy, that is one long run."

Next Saturday is the 10 mile trail race in Milford State Park!

10 Endless Miles and 3 Rakes

It's bound to happen.....

And this Friday was it for me.  A really awful run.  It was hot, it was windy, and my head just wasn't where I needed to be to run 10 miles.  But since I ran linear trials and didn't have a phone....there was really no choice once I was over 4.5 miles into an out and back run.  My run was very slow, a huge struggle and I'm pretty sure I walked more on this run than I have in I don't know how long.  But it is completed and now it is one to week 11 of training during spring break!

Mitchell was such a huge help this weekend as we started getting flower beds ready for spring!  Chad is working on repairing several rotten posts in the our deck so we tried to get as much done as possible on the other yard work.

Mitchell and I completely filled the back of Big Red with leaves from the yard and I'm sure we have at least another load (if not more) to haul out tomorrow after we haul our first load away.  And if you are wondering....yes we did rake leaves several times in the fall!

It's hard to believe our flowers are already looking like this on March 18th!!  I was so impressed with how hard Mitchell worked and for the length of time he stayed at helping me pick up sticks all over the yard and then raking leaves on and off all day.  He was right by my side most of the day when I was working outside.  Even Collin was out attempting to rake leaves and helping picking up sticks in the playground area.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful boys!!

10 miles and a Lego Invasion

Tomorrow I plan on taking advantage of the longer daylight available in the evenings and will tackle my 10 mile long run after work. With a another record high in the mid 80's projected, I know I will need to stay hydrated and expect this to be slower and perhaps more of a struggle in the warmer weather.

Another great shot from Mitchell's first grade concert a few weeks that was too fun to be left out of my blogging  corner of the world.

We love Lego's at our house!!! Mitchell loves them, Chad is just as excited to put the differet larger sets together as Mitchell is, we still have legos from when I was growing up, and Collin loves them too. Of course, Collin also loves to play with them when his brother would like him not too....

With this love of legos there also seems to be a small invasion that has slowly taken over our carpet space. If I'm not careful, several can be sucked up by the vaccum, and after stepping on them numerous times in the dark....I couldn't agree with the above picture more. :)

Rain Run

Chad and I were able to get away for a short weekend trip to York, NE this past weekend to visit his cousins. We always have such a great time with the Kohl's and we wish we got to see them more.

We were also very thankful to my parents for keeping the boys so we could have a weekend to relax and enjoy some kid free time.  The boys love having overnight stays with Grandma and Grandpa...and all the spoiling that comes along with it. :)

It was a rainy Sunday, but as I took out on my 40 minute easy run I thought I had a brief window that would be mostly dry.  About a mile into the run, the sprinkling turned to light rain and when I had reached the top of Churchill RD...I was suddenly running straight into a south wind and moderate rain.  But even with the rain, I kept going and completed my 40 minute run (soaked to the bone) logging 4.11 miles.  Having the perspective of running over 13 miles last year at the OKC Half Marathon in the pouring rain helped me to keep going today and not stop just because of a little rain.  However, even though I know I can complete a Half Marathon in cold, rain and wind, I am praying for much drier conditions for the April 29th race!

A Muppet of a Man

Chad surprised the boys last night when he picked them up with one of the songs from the Muppet Movie that was released during the 2011 holiday season.  He got it as a free download and this was definitely one of my favorite parts of the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MFn8L9tIrg&feature=related

2 of our favorite shows include both of these actors and who doesn't love the muppets???

9 mile run tomorrow and an easy 40 minute (usually a little over 4 miles) on Sunday.  Sunday will be less than 50 days until the OKC Half Marathon!

Jazz Hands in 1st Grade

Mitchell's 1st grade program was last week and he did a great job!

Guess who is still the tallest kid in 1st grade?

1st Grade Jazz Hands!

Collin decided we needed a picture of his lizard instead of the 1st graders for this photo.

It was a very cute program and we all enjoyed it very much.

This is conference week at my school so I have already completed my 40 minute easy run today and will tackle a 4 mile tempo run on Monday. 9 miles is on the training schedule for this week and I am hoping it goes as well as the 8.25 I completed (with lots of hills included) this past weekend.