My Day

Guess what I did today? I completed one of goals for the year. That's right, I put a nice check mark (very happily I might add) next to run a 5K. The only reason this was a goal of mine this year was because Justin suggested it and I was wanting to lose pregnancy weight also so I thought why not, it should help right. I have sisters who run, I have a sister who runs marathons regularly (seriously, 4 marathons this year plus a couple other races, coaching running, etc), Justin likes to run, I should run. That pretty much sums up the reasoning Justin gave me. That and he thought that by competing I would maybe catch the runners desire. I don't know if I caught the running desire quite yet. But looking back on this morning it was kind of cool to compete. The best part to me was even with my very little training (yeah so part of the point was that I would train with running) once we got settled in at a pace there were only two people who passed me.

Here's the picture from afterward. I did get a t-shirt and they did a raffle drawing and Justin and I both won something there. We didn't stick around for awards, the wind had picked up and it was cold, and I am pretty sure we didn't place. Still I beat my previous (Monday night practice run) 3 mile time. We finished at 36:02. I ran (and walked) at a about a 12 minute mile. I am pretty impressed with myself. (Hence the long bragging paragraph.)

So this afternoon and this evening I put together a fall tablecloth. I cut it out last night so today I just sewed it all together. It's basically an easy quilt top with no borders, backing, or the like. It does need a small border to cover the edge of my table but it is on the table right now (under plastic--you don't really think I would use it as a tablecloth by itself). Kind of fun.

Now, do we think I can actually finish a quilt? Really finish a quilt, not just a top? We'll see but I am not so sure (only because I really like hand quilting currently).

Oh, here are a couple of good books about quilting:
The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue (good mystery book)
The Drunkard's Path by the same author
The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini (good fiction book)

Fun with photos!

AJ helped me clean out my basement office and we started to have fun with some backdrops and stuff. It's awesome when your wife has yards of fabric around that make fun backdrops :)

Halloween!

Here are the much requested pictures from our halloween costumes.

To start with we have Sam the Volcano Blaster! This was a much discussed and negotiated costume. I think it turned out fairly well. He seemed to enjoy it. He liked that he could duck down inside it and explode out.

Hannah the Flower Princess. She loved the tutu and the hat, she calls it her crown. It's an awfully big tutu, note to self, not quite so many yards of tulle next time.

Michelle didn't get an original costume. This was worn by Hannah in past years but I only had so much time for costumes. She liked that she had a tutu. The first time she wore it she stood there and danced a little bit.

There you have it! Enjoy!

Sayings from the family

There are no pictures to accompany these statements but here are things that have been heard around the house:

"No dancing on the table." This is for Michelle and her skills of climbing. For a little bit I was able to stop her by moving all the chairs away from the table. Now she knows how to move them to where she wants, counters with keys and laptops and phones. And of course tables are the next step after the chair.

"Are you an omnivore?" I was actually asked this question the other day by Sam after I won the race of running down the stairs. Apparently we are learning quite the range of stuff from PBS kids. And just a refresher (because I had to go over to know for sure), an ominvore is someone who eats all kinds of things. Oh the things I relearn from my kids.

"Where does it hurt?" This is what I ask from any crying child. It usually is minor and even if they think it is traumatic a kiss is all it takes and they are back to whatever it was they were doing. Wrestling, raising and running into each other, climbing on top of each other. This is how they are hurt, what are they not understanding here?

And the most often heard: "What can I DO?" Although why they still ask is beyond me. They never like my answer but still keep asking.

Want better ways to waste your time on the web?

A couple of my favorite websites which help to expand my skills and education rather than just blind entertainment or news:

http://delicious.com/

Links which are much much better than the trash that populates sites such as reddit or digg.

http://lifehacker.com/

Tips on improving everything from your home life to your professional life - basically hacking your existance to be better

More modern tango music

AJ and I were watching Dancing with the Stars (yeah, with both of us having been on ballroom dance teams no surprise there) when some cool tango music accompanied one of the dances. I've found myself really liking groups like Project Gotan and such, and this new group (to me) is right up that alley. Check out Otros Aires.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsPr_4CD1Us

Enjoy!

"First" Lost Tooth

Here's the highlight of Sam's life, at least today, was that he his first tooth came out. I know the picture shows two missing teeth but the top one was a casualty of his active life at around 3 and the fake tooth (his new tooth he called it) came out towards the beginning of the year. The two bottom ones have both been loose and after eating an apple this afternoon the one was really loose. It was bugging him and he kept playing with it. Eventually he had his tooth in his hand. He is pretty excited and can't wait to tell all his friends.