So, about that...

Umm, for clarification purposes. Sorry for dropping the "we're selling our house" news without any other details! I forgot that we hadn't really spilled the beans to family yet. I wasn't meaning to make you all suspenseful and worrisome.

First, no. I am not pregnant.

Second, yes. We ARE trying to sell the house.

Here's the dealio. When we bought our house the intention was to fix up the attic and make it into a master suite of sorts, so that we'd have a true 3 bedroom house. Turns out that when we had to upgrade from a fuse box to a breaker box, and replace the line into the house, an enormous hole was created, which showed rot underneath it. Thus, we re-sided the house. And the stairs were crumbling, so we had to replace them. And most of the wiring was horribly done, so 75% of the house has been rewired. And we fixed up the basement, then had to rip it out, waterproof it, and are currently re-finishing it. And the attic remains untouched. AKA, this house = money pit. As such, we decided to talk to our realtor before doing anything else to make sure we weren't wasting our money.

As it turns out, we are. Well... we're ok as it is now, but she basically advised us that if we are going to spend any more money fixing this house up, we won't get it back, and we'd be better off just buying something else. The improvements we're making have just outgrown the neighborhood and location. Which we kind of thought was the case. We've only been here 3 years, which is not as long as we thought. But, we would like to have more kids in the near future, and with Emma being such a lousy sleeper, the thought of her having to share a room is somewhat frightening. And the thought of having to share OUR room for more than a few months is REALLY frightening. So.

We are just trying to take advantage of the market while we can. At the price our realtor thinks we can get, we'll still be making money on the house. So, it just makes sense for us to get out now and upgrade to something better while the prices of better homes is lower, too. For the future house, square footage isn't necessarily a big concern. It's just layout and number of bedrooms. An extra bathroom would be nice, too. Plus, we're thinking more longterm (as in forever) for this house, so school district is more of a consideration, too. As far as selling our house in this market...well...we're hopeful. Our realtor was really impressed with the improvements we've made, and thinks that for first time home buyers this house would be a steal. And since the government is still handing out incentives for first time home buyers, this could be good for us. We are hoping to have it on the market ASAP, because in both of the last two years our realtors company has had the most sales for the year in January and February. So, ya know, I'd like to get in on that. Plus, she also said that for some reason people think the spring is the best time to put a house on the market. So, while the buyer pool remains relatively constant throughout the year, in the spring there is a large influx in properties available. So, we just really want to stay ahead of the game there, as well.

So, there's stress trying to finish things up. We have the basement to finish, some fixes in the garage, a few minor fixes in the attic, and then CLEANING and ORGANIZING which will take quite some time. The good thing is that we don't really have to sell. So if it needs to sit on the market for a while, that's ok. We're not going broke, or moving across country. So if we need to wait, it's no big deal.

And that's that. Sorry for the waiting:)

Tidings of great JOY

Ok, so my pity party is over. I know that last post was really whiny... what can I say? We are trying to get the house on the market by January (you know, that month that starts in about 8 days) and we just have so much to do before then. Finishing the basement, and fixing up parts of the garage and attic...oh and then there's the CLEANING, organizing and de-cluttering that will need to take place after all that work is done. So I was just having a stressful moment. I apologize for my whiny-ness. And yes, Sara and her crew did roll into town and make it all better, but I'm not going to talk about that because Anna is probably reading this and I don't want to make her cry.

So, anyway, like I said, pity party over. I am really thankful for so many things, and have more than my fair share of blessings in this life. I have blessings that others can only wish for, and the fact that I even have a roof over my head makes me far richer than many others in the world. I am thankful for my family, for my faith, and my home. I am thankful for the time that I have to spend with the people I love, and to do the things I love to do. I am thankful for my friends, who still like me even when I'm anti-social and barely ever see or talk them. I am thankful for my BEST friend and the way she's always there when I need her. I am thankful for this time of year, when I know that regardless of how many people actually are home for the holidays, mom and dad's house will always be rockin'. And I am thankful for the enormous spread that my mom will invariably put out. I am thankful for Egg Nog, and cookies, and fudge, and Sun Chips and Pop Rocks. I am thankful for Dr. Pepper and Wild Cherry Pepsi. I am thankful for Target, because where else would I go to get out of the house when it's so frigid outside? I am thankful for Mike, who puts up with my pissy moods and works his little tail off so I can be a SAHM. And for the fact that he sacrifices things that he wants, and even NEEDS, so he can spoil Emma and I rotten. I am thankful for Emma and the little miracle that she is. I am thankful for the 1,837,926,012 times a day that she makes me laugh, and for the way she can make an elephant noise better than me, and how she'll flap her wings like a chicken when I ask her what a chicken does.

And I am thankful for the snow storm we had this weekend, because it was the first time I got to take my daughter sledding!

I must have done SOMETHING bad...

Because it seems like the karma train ran over me this week. I don't know what I did, but it MUST have been BAD, because anything that could go wrong in the last four days or so, has.

Let me begin.
Thursday.

Mike and his dad were supposed to be getting started on the basement finishing project. Mike took a "half day", meaning he was supposed to be home from work around 11:30 or 12:00. And yet? He got held up at work until 1:30. And then, as he was WALKING DOWN THE STAIRS into the basement, his work phone rang. I contemplated chucking it out the window, but it was too late. He heard it, and came back upstairs. And then spent about 4 hours doing stuff on his laptop for work, instead of buying, cutting and hanging drywall. By the time he finished with work stuff, it was time for dinner, and he barely had time after that to get anything done before Emma went to bed. Because the noise travels from the basement to the upstairs, and Emma is such a light sleeper, the guys couldn't do anything remotely noisy while she was sleeping. So they barely got anything done Thursday night. And let's just talk about Emma for a second. She had her flu shot Thursday afternoon. And it was downhill from there.

Friday.
Mike and his dad took the whole day off to work. The morning went well enough for them, but not for Emma and I. We went over to my in-laws house so the guys wouldn't need to worry about keeping Emma up from her nap, etc. And she was just. Miserable. Between the flu shot and the two molars she's working on, she was just in a world of pain. And when she's not feeling good to begin with, she likes to get into everything she's not supposed to. And then she throws huge fits when I have to stop her from, say, trying to drink out of the empty soda can that fell out of the recycling container she tipped over... And then to make matters worse, she wouldn't nap. At all. So it was just a miserable morning. So I had to take Emma home to try and get her to nap, which meant that the guys had to stop work completely, because EVERY little noise they made would send her into a fit. And she still barely slept, and was just generally awful all day. The guys made a decent amount of progress, but were still way behind on just about everything they had planned.

Saturday.
The snow came, which was ok, because we really weren't going anywhere, anyway. The guys got to work and things were going pretty well until...wait for it... the garage door opener decided to stop working. We haven't had a single problem with it in the three years we've lived here. And yet, in the middle of the basement finishing project, and in the middle of a gigantic snow storm, it competely died. Dead. All gone. Buhbye. And so the guys had to stop work and spend a huge chunk of time trying to first, fix it, and then second, realize it was dead and go get a new one and try to install it. Gag me. And, again, Emma did not sleep all day.

Sunday.
Church was cancelled, so we just stayed in and tried to get the garage door opener functional, so I could get my car back in the garage. We did eventually get it working, but it took longer than expected. And we still haven't quite got it adjusted for the right opening/closing distance, so there's still more tinkering to be done. And there's still so much work to be done in the basement. The guys didn't even finish mudding, and still have to sand, clean and paint. And then there's the ceiling to install. So many distractions, so much time suck. Had they actually just been able to get to work, the basement would be at least painted, by now. Ugh. And then Mike was outside cleaning his car, and went to move it only to find that the battery was dead. So he had to get a jump, and take it down to AAP to get a new one.

Seriously, Karma, did I do something?? Why can't things ever just go smoothly for us?

*Sigh*

Marathon 2.0

So. I ran another marathon. Like, a month ago. I've been totally blazy (blog-lazy) lately, and I knew this would be a long post, so I just never got around to it. And I've been a bit busy moping about it, too. So I've finally decided to just get it over with. Here we go.

Dear Harrisburg Marathon,

(Yes, Anna, it's one of those posts.)

You suck. I hate you. Please don't advertise yourself as "flat and fast" when clearly, you are neither. Also, please don't hand out maps that show water stations every 2 miles, and then set up the course so that there were multiple stretches of 4+ miles without water. Also? You suck. Did I mention that already? I hate you.

Sincerely,
Alyssa

Ok, now that I have that out of the way, I'll give you the deets.

My time was an embarassing 5:23. No, not five minutes 23 seconds. 5 hours and 23 minutes. Oh. My. Freakin'. Goodness. I'm really ashamed to even post that. It's 28 minutes slower than my first marathon. If Oprah had been running this race, she would have kicked my Trash. And ya know what? I probably walked a total of 2 miles, intermittently, throughout the course. That, more than anything, really had me upset. I didn't walk a step until about 16 or 17 miles in, when the hills got INSANE. I knew the only way my body would make it to the finish was to walk up the hills. And at about 24.5 miles in, my right hip started doing this thing that it sometimes does, where it feels like it's dislocated, but it's probably not, but it still hurts like crap anyway. And by 16 miles in I was ridiculously dehydrated due to the lack of water stations. And I threw up twice on the trail through Wildwood Lake. The whole thing was just a mess for me.

Sounds pretty horrible, right? Well, yeah it was. And I've spent quite a bit of time being bummed about it. But then Christy sent me a virtual slap upside the head and helped me realize that,

DUDE. I RAN TWO MARATHONS BEFORE I WAS EVEN A YEAR POST PARTUM. AND THOSE MARATHONS WERE 28 DAYS APART.

So why am I still struggling to grasp that? Because I can be ridiculously competitive, even if I'm not really "competing" against anyone in particular. Being an athlete for almost all my life, it's just my nature. So, when I went into the Harrisburg Marathon hoping to improve the time from my first marathon, and instead had a completely dismal day, I was just disappointed in myself. And embarrassed. But really, my expectations were completely unrealistic.

A) I had the swine flu for a week, followed by bronchitis for two weeks, all in the three weeks right before the race. I was still recovering from the bronchitis on race day.

B) I did exactly two "training runs" between the first marathon and the second. The longer of those two runs was only 5 miles.

C) I ran by myself. I did have my ipod, but it was no replacement for Darin, who of the two of us, is someone who actually has an internal clock and can tell what kind of pace we are on. I missed her:(

D) I never really re-hydrated after being sick, so...duh. That was dumb.


So, yeah, anyway, I should have known it wasn't going to be a stellar day. I think I would have been less bummed about my time, had there been a better atmosphere about the race, like there was in Steamtown. But Harrisburg was just...dead.

BUT. There were tons of great things about the race, that I am realizing outweigh the crapitudinousity of it.

1) My pace for the first 12 miles was totally kick-butt. And my time at 13.1 miles was 9 minutes faster than my 13.1 mile time in the first marathon. Had I not been coming off of sickness, and dehydrated, I seriously think I could have done some damage to this course! It has also motivated me to train for a half, and maybe some 10k races in the future, and train more for speed, rather than sloooooooow endurance:)

2) By the time I got to mile 14, I was in tears because I was so very lonely, and I had it set in my mind that there was no way I'd finish the race. And I was really sad about that. And also, there was no sag wagon, so I was worried about how I'd get back to my car. But THEN! At mile 15 or so, wouldn't you know it.... BIRD, DEB, and Bird's friend JEN showed up, holding some totally Kick-A signs, advertising the love that the UMC has for me!!! And it totally brightened my day. They were screaming, yelling, etc. and it got me so excited!! I stopped, gave Bird my long sleeve shirt (it was blazing hot that day!! too hot for such a long race!) and gloves, and she gave me a powerbar and sport beans to replenish my stash.

3) I saw those three ladies like, 4 or 5 more times before I got to the finish line. They were awesome! They even cheered for me when I came out of the potty!!

4) Darin. Oh Darin. How I missed her on this run. But as I was turning the corner to come down to the finish, there she was!!! I almost started crying right then, because I was so stoked to see her cheering for me. But then I rounded the corner and Deb yelled at me for crying, so I stopped.

5) Donuts. They had donuts at the finish line. Dear Harrisburg Marathon, you redeemed yourself. Sort of. I still hate you:)

So, to finish. It was a crappy day. BUT. I don't feel so crappy about it. I am proud of myself for running 2 marathons in 28 days, less than 1 year post-partum. I have never really been a runner. Athlete, yes. But you don't cover much distance on a volleyball court, and the javelin runway isn't that long. So, just finishing these races is a major accomplishment for me. And I'm proud that I did it:)

The End.

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm....

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with these pants??

She's One!

Birthday Girl with some serious bed head
Daddy with birthday girl, signing that she wants to eat!

Emma's b-day cakes. Little one for her to destroy, big one for adults to destroy. Please disregard the claw toes on the monkey. My bad.

Awwww.

In her new rocking chair, which belonged to PopPop Sage when he was a boy!

Mommy and Emma checking out the cakes!

Mmmmm.

I think I like this!!

What happened to that pretty little cake that was here before?

So. Emma's 1! Can you believe it?? It seemed as though time was at a standstill just a few months ago, and now BAM! She's 1 already!

So, we celebrated. Yesterday, Mike's sister Amanda flew in from Texas. So we headed over to the in-laws to hang out for the afternoon. Once Emma woke up from her nap, we headed out to Candy Lane at HersheyPark. And. She. Loved. It.

We first went on the monorail. I was a little nervous because she gets impatient when we just have to standstill, and there was a line. But there were enough of us, and we had brought enough food, that we were able to keep her entertained! Once we got on the ride, she was mesmerized. She's always loved lights, so to see the Christmas displays flashing before her, had her awestruck. Next, we went and saw Santa's reindeer. She loves animals so she got a big kick out of that. Then, we hit the Carousel on our way out of the park. It was spinning fast enough to make ME a little nauseas, but she seemed to love it!! I don't have pics from the park, but I'll get some from my in-laws and put them up on FB if you're interested.

After the park, we had dinner at Red Robin. Emma was so well behaved, and just lit up when the waiters and waitresses came out clapping to sing Happy Birthday to her!

Today we had a party with both sets of grandparents, Amanda and Bird. It was great! Presents, dinner, cake... just a great day overall!!

How's my day going, you ask?

Officer: Your license and registration, please.
Me: Here.
Officer: Do you know why I stopped you?
Me: No...you were behind me for a while. I know I wasn't speeding.
Officer: No, you weren't speeding. But you blew right past that stop sign back there.
Me: I thought it said, "Except Right Turn"? I'm almost positive it said "Except Right Turn"!
Officer: Ma'am? (long pause)
Me: Officer? (confused stare)
Officer: You turned left.
Me: (burst into tears)

True Story. And that wasn't the worst part of my day. Not even close.

The Sickness

Hello, my name is Alyssa. I've been clean for 6 days.


Err...I mean... I've been un-sick for 6 days.

Sadly, it seems as if the Sage household is cursed with the becursing cursification of The Sickness Curse. We just can't seem to kick it. I was sick in the early fall, and shortly after Mike got sick. Then he got REALLY sick because he's the kind of guy who refuses to see a doctor or take medicine until he's about to die. Then he got better. And then a few days later I ran a marathon. And a few days later I got The Flu. I don't know if it was the swine flu, because I DIDN'T go to the doctor. I called just to see if there was anything specific I should do, and they said to take cold and flu medicine. So, I'm glad I didn't waste my time, or money on a co-pay, for someone to tell me to take Tamiflu and quarantine myself. Anyway. So yeah. The flu. And then as I was recovering from the flu I developed bronchitis, but luckily it didn't get as bad as the bronchitis that Mike had. Ugh.

And now I've been relatively healthy feeling for 6 days.

The sad thing is that I missed out on a bunch of stuff being under The Sickness Curse. The symptoms weren't fully manifested at the time, but I was feeling crappy enough that I missed a trip to DC while my sis Anna was there visiting Pittsburgh Sara. Hey Anna.... yeah sorry about that...I suck. I know. But in retrospect, I'm glad I didn't go and infect you and Sara. Although I really was bummed about not going. And also, I had a weird dream the other night that you came home to visit mom and dad this time, and didn't bother to tell me because you were mad at me, and assumed I'd flake out and not come visit you when I said I would. But I just happened to go to mom and dad's that day, and you answered the door and told me to leave, but that I couldn't take Emma with me. I woke up very sad:(

I also missed out on a trip to Green Dragon with my MIL and her sisters. I was really looking forward to it. For those who don't know, it's a huge market with all sorts of food, crafts, and other random stuff.

I also missed out on a BEAUTIFUL week of weather!! The week that I had The Flu was just absolutely gorgeous out! Thankfully both my mom and dad were able to help me out that week, and were able to get Emma outside for walks and to play. But I felt SOOOO jealous that I couldn't get out!

The Sickness also meant that I lost about 2 of the 3 weeks of running I was planning on in prep for the Harrisburg Marathon this weekend. I've jogged a few times this week, but I don't want to do too much, because the race is so soon. So, we'll see how that goes!! Say prayers for me on Sunday, and hopefully I'll live through the race. But really, I just hope I finish!!

We all have skeletons in our closet...

Sigh.

Yes, it's true, we all have skeletons in our closet. Some are minor, some are major, some eat at us til we reach a point of insanity, some stay buried and forgotten for years. But we all have them. Most of us aren't political figures or celebrities who live in fear of our buried skeletons making reappearances in the public on a grand scale. But still, how many of us live in fear of our closest loved ones, friends, or enemies, even, finding those skeletons we've meticulously packed away.


And that brings me to my point. I'm tired of living in the fear that someone may stumble upon my skeleton. I'm tired of worrying what people will think, I'm tired of wondering who may already know, and what they will and/or do think of me once they find out. It's not a pleasant feeling...that feeling of looking over your shoulder, that feeling of hiding something away.



So.

What to do.

I choose to air it all out. I choose to unbury my own skeletons, and let 'em lay smack dab in the middle of my living room. Because I just...can't...hide it...anymore.



The Skeleton in my Closet.

There you have it. I dressed my kid up as a skeleton...to use her...as a pawn...in my own sick game...of procuring as much candy as possible.... for me... to eat all by myself... without sharing.

And I feel soooooooooooooo dirty. (and stomach-achey)

But so relieved to have it out in the open. I think I just solidified my standing in the UMC.

For Amanda...

SIL Amanda pointed out to my MIL that I needed to post some more Emma pics ASAP. So, here they are, for your enjoyment:)

The Marathon

Well, some of you have been asking about my race, so here it is!Mike made it to two viewpoints, and the finish line. Here we are feeling good, but still chilly at mile 7.7!

We caught up to and passed most of those people in the pack ahead of us!

Here we are rounding the corner not too far from the 19 mile mark.

Here we are passing some people just beyond that.

Here I am barreling down the hill towards the finish line as fast as my legs could carry me.

Here is my backside.

And here I am crossing the finish line! Woot!

Darin and I sitting on our sweet space blankets.

Here we are enjoying some yummy post-race pierogies.


And here I am in my sweaty, nasty, post-race glory.

So. We did it. In 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 44 seconds. But still.

Our goal going in was 4:30:00. However, there were some things we didn't take into consideration when making that our goal time. So overall I'm KINDA bummed about it, but not really bummed at all.

Things we didn't consider:

a) walking through aid stations. We went to the race expo on Saturday and heard some

professional runners give some "sage" advice. One tidbit was to get liquid at EVERY aid

station, and to walk through them to ensure maximum intake. So, considering that there

were 13 aid stations, that's 13 momentary pauses we hadn't thought about.

b) 7 pee breaks. It's one thing to have to stop and pee. But 7 times?? Referring back to a), we

had a much greater liquid intake than we're used to. And honestly, I think we overdid it

with the intake merely out of fear of dehydration. I think we could have cut back a bit to

save ourselves the pain of running with a full bladder, and the TIME SUCK that was the

potty break! I mean, based on our training runs I think we didn't need to drink quite as

much as we did! The killer about this one was that not only did we have the pause of the

break, but the pause of having to wait in line for a Port-A-John, and then the difficulty of

having to hover over a pee-soaked seat with quads that were aflame, and nostrils that

were trying desperately not to suck in the foul stench. So.

c) The downhills. Yes, we knew this was considered a "downhill marathon". All the advice we

received was to take it easy down the hill, lean back, shuffle, slow down, take your time.

We did that. It saved our quads, I think, since they were doing ok at the end. But following

that advice really did suck up a lot of time, because there were A LOT of downhill sections.

d) The Uphills. For all the pre-race talk of the need to train for downhills, the marathon reps

failed to mention that this course contained some SERIOUS uphills. I mean, SERIOUS

hills. Ridiculous hills. I did quite a fair bit of hills during my training, but hadn't counted on

too many of them when setting my goal time/pace. Mile 23 was the worst. We hit the mile

marker and then looked up and saw this giant pack of "runners"....walking. Darin and I

looked at each other almost simultaneously and announced that we were going to run it.

And we did. Mile 23 also sucked because Michael Scott WAS NOT there handing out jello shots, or free paper.

e) The weather. It was cooooooooooooooold. I mean, we knew it would be chilly, but the chill

lasted much longer than was expected. It was 37 degrees at the start, and by mile 20 or

so it was 44 degrees. It finally warmed up at the end when the sun came out.

So, ya know. It was a wee bit rough. BUT. It was awesome. I loved it. Even the parts I hated.

The best things:

a) Seeing Mike there cheering for me. It felt so great to hear my name and have that

support!

b) Seeing Darin's husband and kids there cheering for her. It was adorable. We didn't really

know where Dave was going to show up. But we were just approaching a turn that led to

the Rails-to-Trails section of the race and we heard them calling out, "Go Mommy!". And

then her youngest, Evanie, started to run out onto the course to see her! So Darin got a

hug and a kiss and a glimpse of her brood before we headed into the woods. It was such
a lift to the spirits!

c) The scenery! We started in Forest City, and the forest it was. The colors are changing in

Scranton and it was just beautiful. As I mentioned, we also ran along part of the Rails-to-

Trails. And while that part was challenging because it was narrow, quiet, and muddy, it

was absolutely gorgeous!

d) The locals who cheered for us. I heard more cowbell yesterday than at any other time in

my life. There were bands, and cheerleaders, and locals blaring music from their porches

or trunks. There were sections of the race where we were greeted like rock stars, and

every time it was such a boost for us. There were many cheers of "hey ladies you're

looking good! No, I mean, you're looking goooooooood!"

We couldn't pass through those sections without

huge smiles on our faces, and without a little extra speed in our step. I can't say enough

about how wonderful it felt, and how grateful I was for those cheers, because it carried

me through many a mile.

e) The Finish Line. With about .9 of a mile left in the race, we were faced with yet

another hill, about .6 of a mile, I'd say, was uphill. So we did all we could to get to the top

of the hill, and there it was, THE FINISH LINE! Between the adrenaline and the fact that

the last .3 of a mile was downhill, I just went. I couldn't hold back on the downhill

anymore, and I just went flying. I was really afraid I was going to fall, but thankfully I

didn't. As we hit the top of the hill, we could see that the finish was PACKED. We

finished almost 5 hours after the start of the race, and awards were given out over 2 hours before we crossed the finish line. But still, the
people were there packed around the chute, cheering our every step. There were people
calling out my bib number and cheering me on! It was such a rush of adrenaline! And I
was just so overwhelmed.

f) Darin. Darin is the reason I ran. If she hadn't asked me to train with her, I wouldn't have

done this race! She did all the long, hard training runs with me, and gave me the

confidence I needed to do this. With the exception of walking through the aid stations, we

ran every step of this race. It may have been slow, but we were there for each other.

When one of us hit a rocky spot, it seemed like the other instinctively took the lead,

picked up the pace, and carried the other. I could never have done this race by myself.

So, THANK YOU DARIN!! I hope you had as much fun as I did!

We also noticed some...unique...individuals:

a) The Pee-er. He was an old dude who felt it appropriate to walk to the side of the road

and just whip it out and pee. It was not pleasant to see. And it was even more disturbing

given that he was standing about 5 feet away from a heavy forest area that would have

provided adequate coverage.

b) The Spr-alker. I mentioned above that we received advice from professional runners

about taking it slow and easy on the hills, and then maintaining pace on the flat portions.

The Spr-alker (or, Sprint-Walker) did quite the opposite. We were doing a back and

forth thing with her until about mile 6, where she would come zooooooooming out of no

where, sprinting as fast as she could down the hills, and then immediately stop and

walk at the bottom of the hill. And she repeated this over and over again. I don't know

if she finished.

c) Loud Talker Guy. He was just loud. And annoying. And he had equally loud and

annoying companions.

d) The Spitter. He passed us, but wasn't very far ahead. And he felt the need to spit about

every 15 seconds. And I was trying to dodge his loogies.

e) The King. We didn't see him very long, but from what the guys said at the finish line,

he wore his BK crown for the entire race.

So. It was a memorable event. I really had a great time. A hurty time, but a great time:) So good, I'm about 95% sure that I'll be running another one in November:)

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers to Emma, for continuing to learn how to walk! I wouldn't call her a "walker" but she'll bust out and walk 5 or 6 feet across the room for a toy, or to Mike or I.

Jeers to the old lady at Giant who felt it acceptable to wipe her nose, cough into her hand, and then come up and without asking, grab Emma's hand and then her toes. Those fingers and toes make frequent sojourns to her mouth. So if you do that again, I will punch you in the throat.

Cheers to Darin and I for our fast approaching Steamtown Marathon. We'll be running 26.2 miles on Sunday in Scranton. For you "The Office" watchers, you may have heard that Michael Scott will be stationed at mile 23 with Jello Shots for us.

Jeers to Target for refusing to take my coupons this week!!

Cheers to the fact that I'm done nursing!

Jeers to the fact that I'm done nursing! (well, that should be a more specific jeers to those 8 sharp, pearly white demon teeth that are the reason why I'm done nursing earlier than I wanted to be)

Cheers to Emma, who sounds oddly like Donald Duck sometimes when she's jibberjabbering to herself.

Jeers to being brought to tears by mean people at church! Shouldn't that be the one place where people are nice?

Cheers to dear friends and all the wonderful birthday wishes that were sent my way, and also for those bday wishes sent to Mike!

Jeers to the 10 pounds I KNOW I put on at our birthday dinner.

Cheers to the wonderous glory that is THE MELTING POT. So. Worth. The. 10. Pounds.

Jeers to the wind lately, that has made it too cold out for our daily walks to the park.

Cheers to the plumber, for fixing our leaking bathtub!


I think that's it for my random list.

loooooove it

So, lately, we've been watching PBS kids at our house. And I have to tell you, Sesame Street has some of the best stuff ever. If you haven't seen the Pre-School Musical skit yet, please watch it!!

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMB7Rn8KGE

May or May Not

Um, all yous guyses who follow my blog can probably tell that I really hate to complain about things, and I hate to call other people out on their bad behavior, and I really hate to judge others. You noticed that, right? RIGHT? Oh wait...

So anyway, I really don't want to do that now, so just so you know, this post is completely hypothetical. I may or may not have neighbors who live across the street from me. And they may or may not lack a backyard, causing them to spend all their time in their front yard. And they may or may not blare their radio at all hours of the morning, afternoon and night. Their taste in music may or may not rock, but still, it may or may not be really annoying. They may or may not play the music so loudly that we can't even hear each other talk if we've got the screen on our storm door open. The lady neighbor may or may not take ALL of her phone calls on the front porch, and may or may not feel the need to scream into her phone. And her friends may or may not be hilarious, as she laughs like a hyena incessantly during said hypothetical calls. And she may or may not talk about very personal, uncomfortable, awkward things. These neighbors may or may not park their cars in front of ANYBODY'S house but their own, regardless of the fact that parking on our street may or may not be at a premium. They also may or may not set off fireworks at least once a month, on really special days like July 22, August 13, or September 9. And they may or may not sit back and watch as their dog comes over into our yard and poops/pees, and then leave it there for us to enjoy. And they may or may not engage in lawn care and gardening chores (also at all hours of morning, day, night) wearing inappropriately skimpy clothing. And they may or may not allow their middle school aged daughter to traipse around the neighborhood in REALLY inappropriately skimpy/nonexistent clothing. And they may or may not engage in RIDICULOUSLY inappropriate PDA on their front porch. Even though they may or may not be "hidden" behind a large fern-type plant, that doesn't really hide them. And they may or may not have woken Emma up from her sleep multiple times with their hypothetical shenanigans.

And I may or may not plant my foot firmly in someone's behind.

Lazy

So. I've been feeling rather lazy in regards to the blog lately. Mostly because everything else has been keeping me rather busy. But here a few items, and a few pictures to tide you over for now.

1. I was at Target yesterday, and was pushing Emma in her stroller. An older woman was walking past me in the opposite direction and said, "Oh, isn't she DARLING?!?" And I about wet myself with excitement, because strangers refer to her as a boy about 99% of the time. So that made me happy:)

2. Dear McDonalds: I hate you. Your Bacon, Egg and Cheese McGriddle will be the likely cause of my future obeastity. (Yes, I said Obeastity. I won't just be obese. I'll be Obeast.) And for that, you suck.

3. Emma took her first steps on Wednesday evening! She was standing next to the couch, but was just far away enough that she couldn't hold on to it. So, she took two steps to get close enough to grab onto it. A bit later, she did the same thing, this time taking 4 steps. We haven't been able to get her to do it again since then, but still.

4. Emma's got her 8th tooth!

5. Emma has also started to mellow out. She does a lot of cute things, like sitting with me on the couch. This might not seem like much to you, but before, she would NEVER sit with us. She just never wanted to be still. But now, she'll sit on my lap for sometimes 15 minutes at a time! I haven't had that kind of cuddle time since she was probably 2 months old! She's also developed this really cute habit. She loves her boppy, and she'll crawl over to the couch, stand up, and it pull it down onto the floor. Then, throughout the day, she'll just crawl over to it, cuddle up with it, and lay her head down and just chiiiiiiill. I love it.

6. The marathon is one month away! I'm a wee bit nervous, because my body has been all out of sorts this week. I think there are a lot of factors in play. I had a really, really crappy run last Saturday. I felt worse after that run, than I have after any run since I started training. I don't think it's a coincidence that Monday morning I started to develop a cold. I didn't think much of it then, but by Wednesday morning I was in full-blown misery mode, so I think that may have played a role in the overall miseryness of that run. That said, I am feeling pretty confident about my impending race. For now, I have one more REALLY long run, and then it's tapering from there. I am just going to try to keep my body healthy.

On another note, Mike and I will be making the trip to Scranton for the marathon on our own. Mom will be staying at our house with Emma. I'm looking forward to it, but also kind of petrified. I completely trust Mom with Emma, and Mike has been away from her for a week at a time. But I, on the other hand, haven't been away from her for more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. And I'm a little worried that I'm going to have some emotional breakdown being away from her. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for it now, but it still kind of freaks me out. I just have to keep reminding myself that I'll be able to get a REALLY good night of sleep before the race, and that it will be worth it, but it still feels weird that we'll be there without her. Meh.

Ok, here are some pictures...



Those would be Emma's teeth marks, because apparently she's part beaver.

This is where she greets us every time she wakes up!
She's discovered that if she climbs into the laundry basket, she'll get a ride:)
She has also taken to using her car seat as a recline, and uses it to lounge in the living room.
She's also way into drugs. Who needs toys when you can play with a bottle of tylenol??
Oh, poor Emma. This is her crashed out in her car seat after the blood-draw debacle.

She loves to stand at the door and watch people/cars go by.
See, she's cuddly now! She'll even cuddle with the wall! She literally laid like that for about 5 minutes, just snuggling that wall!
She's not a fan of the gate.


She peed on my leg. And then LAUGHED at me.
Oh boy, I'm in trouble!

vacay water pics

The Randomness is multiplying exponentially

Ok, so there are lots of random things that I keep thinking, "HEY! I should blog about that!" and I just haven't been getting to it. So here I'm about to begin what will likely be a long, rambling, and confusing post. Fasten your seat belts, folks.

1. So, I start back to school this week. Night class will be on Thursdays. In preparation, I've had A LOT of reading to do, and have often found myself drifting off to sleep in the middle of a sentence. As such, I think it's been influencing my dreams. I rarely remember my dreams, but this one I thought was worth sharing. So, in my dream, I'm going back to school, walking through the halls of PSU-H. As I enter the classroom, Dr. Kupfer is absent, and in his place is Tim Gunn. And my "class" is really one of those model shows, kind of like ANTM, but not quite. So all of us "students"/"models" go to the first event. And I realize that Bird is there. Our first event is Queen of the Court volleyball. So, we are playing QotC in our very nice Kenneth Cole clothing (do they even make women's clothing??? Can you tell that this dream is SOOOO not me??), nice button downs, sweaters, jeans, and fancy high heels. So, I'm being all hard core and trying to play well, but everyone else sucks, and I get mad. So, I decide I'm quitting school. I walk out, and then Bird comes to get me. I told her I was quitting school, and had better be able to get my tuition back. And also that I was going to steal all of the nice clothes they had brought out for the models (nice to see I've got morals in my dreams). Bird tells me not to, because they are going to sell the clothes for charity after the "class" is over. I steal them anyway. As I'm leaving, Tim Gunn breaks the bad news that even if I hadn't quit, I'd be the first to get kicked off anyway, because I'm too athletic. And that ends the dream.
Weird, no?
2. Another random occurence (that happened in real life and was not a dream) happened a few weeks ago, but we didn't discover it until recently. One evening we came to find all the nearby neighbors hanging out on the street, and pointing to someone/something in the side yard of our house. As we parked, the neighbors informed us that there was a skunk lurking between our and our neighbors house, and that the Man neighbor had killed the skunk, by crushing it's skull was a precise blow to the head with a shovel. Nice. He had originally tried to shoot it, but apparently he's more accurate with a shovel, than with a .22. (Mental note: stay a shovel-length away from Man-Neighbor at all times) In the process of killing the skunk, Man-Neighbor got sprayed. Ewwww. It was icky, so we just left the gathering and went inside. A few days ago Mike and I were putting things away in our food storage pantry down in the basement, when we noticed a giant hole in our giant box of Ziploc bags. At first we though, RAT! OH NO! But, there were no other chewed up boxes, and why would a rat go for ziploc bags? Then we noticed a hole in the pantry door. And a hole in our basement window. Mike started digging through the box of bags, and found a bullet. Yes, a bullet! In trying to shoot the skunk, our Man-neighbor shot through our basement window, into the pantry and right through our poor Ziploc bags. It was a small bullet, but STILL! Had I been standing at the pantry at that very moment, it would have been right in line to hit me in the head. Wouldn't have killed me, but could have caused some serious damage! SOOOOOOO ANGRY!
3. In brighter randomness, Emma has discovered that she loves to eat baby gold fish. We'd tried giving her the regular gold fish, but when given the choice between regular and baby ones, she always goes for the babies. 'Cause she's cute like that.
4. Also, Emma has a new BFF. It's her Sock Monkey. I have named him, "Mr. Sock Monkey". He is very cute. It's the first toy that Emma has really hugged or kissed, and it's just so cute to see her cozy up with him. She must be a girl after my own heart, because we all know my own BFF was Oswald, the awesome Monkey Chrysta gave to me when I was 8. One day when I know she won't smack herself in the face with the heavy, weighted hands and feet, she'll get to play with Oswald, too. Then she'll have two Monkey BFF's. And I'll be so jealous.
5. So, I did a 16 mile run on Saturday morning! I was a little hesitant going into it, because of other events in the day, I had to get up at 4:30 am to do it, and Emma DID NOT sleep well the night before. So, I was just nervous. But, Darin and I met downtown and did a nice Front Street run along the river, around City Island a couple times and around Italian Lake a couple times, and IT. WAS. AWESOME. My best run ever, really. The weird thing is that the last 6 miles or so were so much better for me than the first 10 miles. It was like I just needed a REALLY LONG warm up before I really got into my groove! But I did, and we finished the run in 2 hrs, 32 min. That's just about a 9:30 min/mile pace! I was so proud of myself! However, after it was over I had to pretty much get right in the car, drive home, shower, get dressed, pack up the car, and head to Jean's bridal shower. After that, I came home, packed up Emma and Mike, and headed for my college roomies' house warming party, where we sat outside in the humidity all afternoon. So, I never was really able to rehydrate myself, or stretch appropriately, so by late afternoon, I felt so, so very sick! I tried drinking, but the more I drank, the worse I felt. I crashed very early that night, and ended up skipping church on Sunday because I just couldn't get rid of the nausea and headache. I am now, happily, fully rehydrated and feeling MUCH better!
6. So, my BFF Jean, is getting married in less than a month! We had her shower on Saturday afternoon, at her mom's house. I played host! It was fun getting all of Jean's friends together and meeting some of them for the first time. Jean and I have been BFF's since 9th grade, but have known each other for much longer than that. When I moved back to Lebanon in 9th grade, Jean really took me under her wing, and made me feel welcome and accepted. We have spent countless hours walking around Wal-Mart, using funny accents, eating Cheesy Poofs, mini egg rolls and TGIFridays Tato Skins! We have embarrasing footage of our own Blair Witch Project, called "CHI CHI OF IONA", and of our "BABY GOT BACK" music video. She is one of those people I could go months without talking to, and just pick back up right where we left off. She is the best friend I've ever had, and I am so happy that she's found Matt, who I will hunt down and murder if he so much as hurts her feelings. Which I'm sure he won't because he's pretty great:) So, yes, we showered her with lots of kitchen utensils and lingerie, and now she's ready to get married! WOOT WOOT FOR JEAN! Love ya, sugar britches!

Some pics

As I explained in my last post, I don't have very many vacation pics because we misplaced our camera for the bulk of the trip. That is sad, as I have realized that we have very few pics of our adorable nieces and nephews, of our ridiculously good looking siblings and in-laws, and absolutely no pictures of Bird and Kanye West, I mean Anna, singing Love Shack. That makes me sad. So other Kilgores, please keep posting your pics! This is what I have for now, nothing terribly exciting, but ya know. Once I get my water camera pics back I will post those as well.