We finally meet Quinn!

We finally got to meet cutie Quinn. She's a doll! Thanks Nikki for your hospitality and feeding us. Yum yum. It was great to see you all!!!! Hope you guys have some quality time together!!!! Enjoy the slideshow of my favorite babes!

past, present, future

I absolutely love spring. We have experienced so much hope, optimism, and anticipation for what is to come. Yet while living in the present I am thankful for peace and contentment. It's truly an answer to prayer.

Enjoy and savor the goodness!!!!!

Week 10 Training Log

The "nifty fifty"
fuel for long run
psyching myself up before the morning long run

Weekly mileage: 38 miles. 16 mile long run at 9:20 min/mile pace. anticipating the marathon more and more. legs feel decently refreshed.

Curt's Stir Fry

I've mentioned Curt's famous stir fry before. Well, here is a photo montage of the making of his delightful dish. All images were captured with our new Canon 50 mm f1.8 lense. No flash. It was a fun evening of stir fry, pictures, relaxing on the couch, and Harry Potter! Blessings to all! Spring is here...really!!!

Strange weekend

It's been a weird weekend...the weather is just goofy. oh well. i'm forced to run on the treadmill.

We spent friday at Josh and Carolyn's place for dinner. We got to check out their new patio door and discuss rabbits and chirping morning birds.

The past week I've learned a ton about camera lenses and a little bit more about bikes. It's been fun and really exciting.

I'm thinking of purchasing these lenses:
Canon 50 mm f1/8...for portraits in low light situations...it's pretty cheap too...about $120.
Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8....good multi-purpose lense that covers 75% of shots
Tokina 12-24 mm wide angle for group shots.

I'm a bit scared about purchasing the Canon 580 EXII speedlite, but everything I've read said that it's just great...plus the idea of using a flash is really intimidating, but i'm super eager to learn and soak up as much info as possible!!!!!! The cool thing about owning a DSLR is having the ability to switch out lenses. We've had our Rebel Xti for a year now, I think it's time to explore more options.

updates soon...

The High Road

It's been a good week for me and Curt. School is going good as we finally wrapped up our unit on chemical reactions and i've had some uplifting conversations with students. Curt is having a blast helping people with their tri bikes too. We are figuring out that triathletes are dedicated, serious, and eager about their hobby/obsession. Lastly, we are doing a decent job of getting protein into our diets...more on this later.

Last night we were talking about friends/acquaintances we have or had in our lives. A lot of them have left such a positive impression. Here are the important lessons I have learned from them: slow to speak-quick to listen, gaining life experience brings perspective and richness, and being a blessing to others is amazing. I am grateful for their example.

I am really really excited about having the chance to become a person of substance. I'll definitely make mistakes along the way, but I believe so much in having solid ground to stand on....i get so excited thinking about it.

Picture Happy!

Random toothless boy who I want to name Liam
Curt in front of Pizza Luce
Curt in the Eden Prairie Theatre

We had another great wknd even though I had a few moments where I was a bit spacey and felt kind of out of it. I did tons of thinking and researching this wknd. I'm a bit worn out. But we did manage to do a few fun things: we learned about the Newton running shoe from the company's rep who presented at Gear West running store (ask Curt about it), we saw the movie "Forgeting Sarah Marshall" on Friday which is totally hilarious, and met up with my friend Regina who is also hilarious and super cute.

On Sunday it was too nice so I went for a walk with my camera and sat myself down at a playground. A cute toothless boy came up to me wanting me to take his picture and so I did. I also took tons of pictures of Curt this wknd. It's either take pictures of him or random things like my mismatched socks or beat up running shoes. I rather take pictures of people...so he's my number one model right now.

Pictures of the Day

Week 8 Training Log

Weekly mileage: 33.5 miles. Good training despite skimping out on some midweek runs. My long run was 15.5 miles on Sunday. Ran with a full water bottle and a granola bar. Consumed everything. I have to admit that I realize that marathon training is a bit crazy. Despite the ups and downs and self-doubt, I am truly having a blast.

Looking forward to this upcoming week...no long runs planned. yippy skippy. i'm going to try really hard to focus on the midweek runs.

Curt has been pretty supportive and motivating. In fact I'm super glad for our relationship. He's fun to hang out with. I would be a pretty boring person with out him.

cw

speedy recovery to angie!

today my friend angie had a successful removal of her thyroid! hope the healing goes well!

I'm a big girl!

I absolutely hate going to the doctors. Today was no exception. But it was time for my annual physical...i've been dreading it all week. Everything about it kind of sucks. The robotic nurses, icky fluorescent lighting, the smell, the sterile environment, and the metal tools.

I survived the experience. I'm relieved. It was kind of a traumatic experience. The worst part was when it was time to get a sample of my blood. Gulp. I was prepared for them to prick my finger, but nooooooo. They needed to find a vein! Immediately i got weak in the knees and queasy, almost borderline hysterical. I had a quick flashback to when I had my wisdom teeth removed. Back then they had a hard time finding a vein and had to poke around forever. Then I had another flashback to when they needed a sample of blood for employment reasons. I was stuck at the clinic for an hour because they were trying to hydrate me with juice so that a vein would surface. So today my lab tech person was quick to figure out that I was one of THOSE patients. She told me that I should drink lots of water and that it would be best for me to lay on a table. Well, it worked. She found a vein after the 2nd poke...all while i was humming away to distract myself with a sweatshirt over my head. imagine that.

when I got home Curt gave me a hug and made me eggs because I had fasted for 14 hours for the appointment. traumatic experience over!

Week 7 Training Log

Weekly mileage: 35.5 miles. Great week of training. Lots of variety with the hills workout, marathon pace workout, and long run workout. No injuries to report which is surprising.

This weekend we did 2 runs together. Fabulous. Weather was heavenly too. No more snow please.

I am happy with my 13 mile run at 9 min. pace. Felt great. Also pleased with my follow up 6 mile marathon pace run (Thanks Curt for pacing).

This week we both have religiously utilized "the stick". It literally is a stick with a bunch of rolling things attached. We use it to massage away sore spots. Great recovery tool. Curt is also big into his compression socks. We made a special trip to CVS to pick up some socks and a heat pad for me.