Goodbye Jeep....Hello Mini Van!

The jeep was a nice car and there is a lot of memories with it, but it was time for us to move on to something with a little more room, so we said goodbye to the jeep on Sunday and Tuesday afternoon we said hello to our new Honda Odessy....*drum roll*It is amazing! I drove it for the first time today and it was soo smooth and quiet! Jacob does a good job when he picks things out and even though it wasn't fun having to deal with the salespeople and all the stuff that goes along with buying a new car, he was amazing and did an awesome job. The color wasn't exactly what we wanted, but things worked out better with this color and we both are pleased with it....I love it! :) Abigail was enthralled when we buckled her in and turned on Shrek....Jacob and I both kept laughing at her expression and it was well worth it to see how much she liked getting to watch a movie while in the car!It still makes me laugh to see her expression...she was like in shock and she literally didn't move or change expressions till we stopped the car (other then to close her mouth after the initial shock wore off!). When we asked her if she liked the mini van better than the jeep, she, without looking away from the movie, nodded her head and whispered yes. :) Bethany on the other hand wasn't too thrilled since she is still facing backwards and can't see the movie unless she turns her head at a weird angle....so it will be nice when she is big enough to have a forward facing carseat....then we will really have some peace when we go for long drives! ;)

Well, we're getting ready to head down to my parent's for this 4th of July weekend as soon as Jacob is off work....sooo excited, I love getting to see everyone and we always have a lot of fun! We should be bringing back some of my siblings, so the fun shall come home with us...yippee! Abigail is really excited about Adalie and John getting to come back with her so it will be a fun week for her too!

I'll leave you all with some pictures of me and the girls...I find that it is quite impossible to get both of the girls in the picture with me and take the picture....I shall have to remedy that....maybe this weekend when there will be lots of people around to take pictures....if I don't forget....I forget things really easily....other then the fact that I Love Jacob the MOST!
I love my girls!

Stuff!

Yes, I know I'm not the greatest blogger, but like a lot of things, I will get better as time goes by and the girls get a little better about not demanding as much of my time.....hopefully! I'm trying to work with them about letting me do a little reading....we're making slow progress, but I did finish one whole book and started on another, so not bad. Well, as long as I don't think about the fact that I used to be able to read a good sized book (something like 500+ pages) in one day....now I'm limited to about an hour and a half of time while the girls nap and boy does it go by really fast! The girls went down for their nap a little later then normal or else I'd be out trying to get some sun....I'll have to do that tomorrow or else I'll be a white ghost in the middle of summer! Okay, not really, but I would feel like it! I'm loving getting to be outside more this year, the last two years I wasn't able to get out much due to the fact of just having had a baby, so this has been nice....other then the extreme hotness! I've noticed kids never seem to notice the heat. I wonder why that is....I mean lately it's been in the upper 90's with a heat index of over 100 and they still want to play outside and I have to force them to come back inside when their faces turn bright red from the heat! It's like they don't understand the concept of heat and that it means you should want to sit in the cool AC! At least we have a pool here and we can cool off some.

Oh, news update....we're probably getting a mini van this weekend! The jeep is needing to be upgraded so yesterday we were out test driving some mini vans and I think Jacob will be doing some more test driving later today. We're looking to buy a new one; Jacob wants one that will last us awhile, but they also cost a pretty penny (I wish they only cost a penny!)...they have some pretty awesome mini vans though and Jacob wants one with the DVD players in it for the girls! I'm excited about that since that will keep them entertained on our long drives...well, it will keep Abigail entertained; Bethany is still facing backwards and hasn't discovered that movies are fun to watch. So, that's the latest and greatest of the happenings around here, other then Jacob didn't have to work today and it's always nice to have him home!

Hospital Hill Half Marathon.....I Did It!

Here we are after the race in our new shirts!

I'm so sorry it's taken me awhile to tell you all about the race....a nasty cold decided to attack all of us last Sunday/Monday (right after the race) so we were rather out of commission last week and spent a lot of time laying around sleeping and watching The Office and Shrek (Abigail's latest favorite). Jacob also missed all week of work, except for Monday, and I didn't run at all...it felt so weird and I felt so out of shape and fat for not running! Funny how that works, but I guess I haven't not run all week since back in February before I started running....seems like a lot longer ago then 4 months ago.

Ok.....THE MARATHON and all that fun stuff! We got to Kansas City early afternoon and met up with my mom and sisters at the hotel...it was definitely a ritzy hotel....the water bottles in the room were $4! Needless to say we didn't use any! :) We all went down to the Crown Center and picked up out packets....bib number, shirt, hat, sample stuff and all that jazz.....then we just checked out all the little stores and got all nervous looking at all the people that had come to pick up packets making the fact that we were going to be racing the very next morning a little more real! My mom and sisters offered to watch the girls so that Jacob and I could go out to dinner, which was really nice of them, especially since Bethany doesn't like it when I leave her so she cries a lot. It was nice for Jacob and I to be able to get away for a little while and we even got to walk around the shops and just hold hands and not have to worry about carrying two kids or keeping track of them. Right before we headed down to the start line!

We all tried to get to bed early since we were getting up around 5:30am.....I don't think anyone had any trouble getting up since we were all a little nervous! We got down to the start line around 6:30am and it was already HOT! It was quite the racing experience....hot, hilly and long! I started out too fast and got dehydrated, but I was able to finish, which for my first half marathon was all that I was wanting. Jacob was holding out his hand for me right before I crossed the finish line!

I had hoped for better time, but with the combination of hills and dehydration my time was slower than when I had run my 14 miles two weeks earlier....so yeah, that stunk, but I would do it again because it felt so good to accomplish something like that! The only disappointing thing, was for the last 3 miles I had been thinking about the chocolate milk at the end of the race....well, I cross the finish line, got my medal and a cold wet towel (which felt AMAZING!) and went down the line of drinks, bananas and snacks to find that there was no REAL chocolate milk! They had some Myoplex chocolate cream, but after trying one drink of that and finding it to be disgusting I threw it away....why would they have something that tasted like that to hand out....I mean really, real chocolate milk taste sooo much better and probably would have been a lot cheaper! So, yes we were all disappointed about the chocolate milk issue, but other people people were too so maybe next year they will fix it and go back to having real chocolate milk. :)
We were all hot, sweaty, stiff and sore, but really happy with ourselves too! The medals were pretty cool looking....makes me want to run more races so I can get medals and t-shirts! :) It really was a lot fun to get to do a race with my mom and two of my sisters and hopefully we can run a lot more together in the future....and at some point have all of us girls running races together!

You Remember Me, Right?!

Time gets away from me faster then I realize sometimes....well, I guess I realize it when I sit down to write and it's been weeks since the last time I wrote, but maybe some of you know what that's like. :) Normally, I'd be in bed right now, but I got a late start on washing Jacob's work clothes, so now I'm having to wait for them to get done so he has clothes to wear in the morning. Of course, it'll probably rain a lot and he won't be able to work, but at least all his work clothes will be ready for him next week. He has Friday off, which works out wonderfully well as he was either going to have to take off the whole day or at least half a day so we could head up to Kansas City for my half marathon I'm doing on Saturday with my mom and two of my sisters! Yes, it's this weekend!!! I can't hardly believe it....it seems like I've been training for a long time and even though I knew I was training for this half marathon now that it's almost here it's like WOW am I really ready to do this!? I'm actually really excited and I probably should be more nervous about it, but I'm not....I mean I am when I think about it a bunch and the fact that I want my finish time to be good (I really don't want to be last!) and I worry about not being ready for the hills. Ok, I'm still excited even when I think about those things! It'll be even more fun since I'll be doing it with my mom and sisters and we all have matching outfits, which it totally awesome! I will definitely be posting pictures of our "race day"...of course, I'll be a little reluctant to post pictures of us after we've finished the race! I mean I don't know about my mom and sisters, but after running 13+ miles I look a lot like a red lobster soaked in water (sweat)....but, I suppose I'll post them any way because we will all have our medals and we'll definitely want to be showing them off! :) Ohhh, I'm getting more and more excited just talking about it! Not that part of being as red as a lobster soaked in sweat, but I think you know what I mean!

So, I should move onto something besides running, because there are those that don't find that interesting....which I understand since I used to be one of them, but I've been bitten by the "running bug" and when I get together with my mom and sisters that's a big portion of what we talk about and we love it!

Well, since last time I posted Bethany had her 1st birthday! My little baby is now a 1-year old and thinking she's big stuff...she runs around doing everything Abigail does, whether good or bad (usually it's bad, trust me!). Her personality is really starting to show and she is such a clown; she will purposely do anything and everything she can think of to make you laugh and it usually works even when you try not to laugh! She's definitely a joy to be around....except at night....we're working on the sleeping though the night.....she's not there yet.....man, I wish she was.....maybe soon............maybe.I will try to post some pictures of their birthdays next week sometime...I have a full camera again and it'll be even more full after this weekend! Oh, and I have a kitchen now!!! It's now fully functional and I was able to unpack all of my dishes....oh, how I missed them! My kitchen is and looks amazing and I love it, but not as much as I love my Jacob who did a lot of hard work to make it look and be nice for me. He is so good to me! But, yes, I'll be posting pictures of my kitchen too....so, lots to look forward to!

I'll talk to y'all next week sometime....don't forget about me!

Goodbye For The Weekend!

We're headed down to my family today...Jacob got rained out of work so we get to go down earlier, which is awesome! The part about us getting to go early, not about Jacob not getting to work because he does need the work, it just worked out nicely that if he had to get rained out of work we at least get to go down to Rolla! :) So, I'm packing up and cleaning up and pretty soon I'll be pie making....I'm only making Toll House Pies, so totally easy compared to cream pies, I just need to get to the store first and the girls are still sleeping. They always sleep in when I'm up and about, they just don't seem to understand that when I'm sleeping in they need to be as well! :) I'm totally excited, but also very hungry (not sure why other then I need to "break-fast"!), so this will be short and sweet....ok, not sure about the sweet part, but it will be short because the girls will be waking up any second and the "race" will be on! :) Well, they seem to have read my mind....the are up, so we're on the move! :)

I'll be back soon...don't miss me too much while I'm gone!

Black & White

Yep, I found the camera cords, so I now have lots, and I mean lots, of pictures! I can only post so many on my blog though, but I will try to post as many as I can! I absolutely love black and white pictures...it adds so much to a picture and it makes me want to turn every picture into a black and white picture!Occasionally, Abigail loves to pose for me...especially when she's dressed up! And you'd never guess by looking at these pictures that she's ornery, would you?! :) Well, she can be a very ornery troublemaker, but she can also be so sweet and nice....we just need to work on the sweet and nice becoming an all the time thing! :)
Bethany is getting so big now, she does (or at least tries to do) everything Abigail does and they can be so cute and ornery together! I love getting good pictures of them when they're being so sweet and lovable! :)I'm sorry about the quality of the last picture, but I wanted some pictures of the girls and me and I am not very good at taking pictures while I'm trying to be in the picture. :)

Craziness....

So, after finishing my last post I went to look for the cords to plug the camera into the laptop....no cords....hmmm....start looking in places I last saw them....still no cords....where on earth are they!!! Ok, I'm sure they're around here somewhere, but I still haven't found them and I have no idea where they could be....so, yes, until I find it I can't post pictures....it stinks I know! I'm hoping Abigail didn't hide them somewhere....a couple weeks ago I opened a little storage compartment, on one of the little toy/walkers we have, to find my watch inside! Thankfully, I hadn't been missing it for very long, but I do have to be careful about what I leave out in reach of Abigail now....I don't think she would have taken off with the cord though, it's doesn't look cool or pretty so I have a feeling it wouldn't catch her attention....I hope! I'll just have to keep looking and until then you all will just have to be content to read more. :) Other then the missing cord, Bethany pounded on the laptop keyboard, somehow managing to zoom in on my blog...now I have no idea how to fix it. How is it they can manage to mess things up so quickly and then I have no idea how to fix it?! I mean, really, I don't think I'm that stupid........ok.......maybe I am when it comes to computers. I am always afraid of messing something up on them, but still you'd think I'd be able to figure it out....maybe Jacob will have to see if he can. Does it look funny to you guys? That's not all "the girls" can do.....the other day the girls and I had been in the bathroom, I walked out to get something and I hear Bethany start to fuss so I walked back around the corner toward the bathroom I saw Bethany coming out with toilet paper trailing behind her! I was half expecting what I would find, but hoping I was wrong as I hurried into the bathroom to see Abigail sitting on the lid of her little toilet calmly peeling off the last of almost a whole roll of toilet paper off the cardboard roll. Ahhhh!!! How frustrating is that!? Of course, it's not easy re-rolling toilet paper and it definitely took A LOT more time to re-roll it then it did for them to unroll it. Thankfully I can at least look back on it and laugh about it, cause I wasn't laughing when it happened!

I'll be back with pictures, hopefully soon!