Blogs, Facebook, email, etc

So last night I had a fun time with some friends as we went and had a girls night out.

In the course of the evening we talked of many things, but one was how people that have gotten on facebook don't update their blogs as often because they post things on facebook. This morning I was thinking that as I started blogging, I stopped sending individual emails as much to people.

So I'm thinking that facebook is fun and all, and this blog is great, but I need to get back to individual letters via email... so that's my goal right now... to email more individual emails to people instead of just posting vague generalized stuff.

GNO

Girls Night Out!

We are having a gno tonight. Me and three friends. We went to a basketball game. Our hubbies thought it was a little funny that we would go to a game for a girls night, but we are having fun! The pictures are just from my phone, so not the greatest quality... oh well!

Susan G. Komen Race for the cure

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in the Oklahoma City Susan G. Komen Race for the cure.

Rich and I along with my friend Robyn and her husband Brian all participated. Robyn has a personal connection to the breast cancer cause, and I think the rest of us participated just because it was a 5k race that we thought would be a good one to do.

It turned out to be an amazing morning for me. Previous to this I had only participated in one 5k race. It was a small PTA fundraiser for a local elementary school. There were only about 100 people that participated and I ran and walked my way through it to a dead last tie with two other ladies. We were running along and the van was slowly driving behind us picking up the traffic cones... pretty disapointing..

Last saturday I was actually in worse shape physical fitness wise than I was for the previous 5k. I knew I couldn't run the whole time, but I just wanted to do what I could and enjoy the experience.

There are THOUSANDS of people that participate in this race. I knew there would be a lot, but I didn't comprehend how many people would be there. Rich, Robyn and Brian all were in shape and ran competitive times. I started back in the slower pack, but I was amazed at how many people were around me running and puffing along with me. Reading the notes on people's shirts and tags of those they were running in support or memory of was inspirational, and seeing survivors running in their pink t-shirts was amazing. If they could fight cancer and then run this race, I could run just a little farther and walk faster than I would have on my own.

I finished the race with a time of 36:56 on the race clock. I didn't cross the start line right as it started, so my time could be a little lower, but I'm thrilled with the experience that I had and I will run this again next year. It was an emotional time and I found myself fighting back tears throughout the run- even though I had no personal ties or connections to people who have fought breast cancer.

Oh the funny thing is the three of them were finished way before me and they knew I'd take a long time to come in... my time was much faster than any of us realized I would get and they didn't start looking for me to cross the finish line until after I had already crossed! I wandered around for 20 minutes looking for them and they were still at the finish line looking for me. lol! :)

Autumn days...

Autumn has hit our part of the country completely the past 2 weeks. We've had cool weather and rain, and more rain and even more rain. I love to sit inside with a cup of hot cocoa and a plate of cookies and read the day away when the weather is like this.

But I'm trying to loose weight, so cookies are out, and the hot cocoa that I allow myself is a very seldom indulgence right now.

So instead I've found myself cleaning out shelves, sorting through kids clothes, rearranging my kitchen cabinets, and trying to keep myself busy through the day. The busier I am, the less likely I am to just grab something to "snack" throughout the day.

And so my closets are looking cleaner, my overflowing pile of clothes the kids have grown out of have been tossed, or given away to others, and I have a new found place in the kitchen to store some bulk items and other stuff I used to have to store in the laundry room.

I've also managed to loose 8 pounds in the process.

So as London Tipton would say "Yea me!" (If you don't watch the Disney Channel on occasion you probably won't get that- and that's okay. :-) )

What good things have you forgotten about recently?

I have a great soaking tub with a whirlpool in it in my bathroom. For the past few months I've been slowly but surely trying to get it back into good shape. See we moved into this house almost 5 years ago. I used the tub quite often while I was pregnant, and then slowly but surely forgot about the whirlpool function on the tub and the greatness of it while the tub became a great place to bath little girls, and the whirlpool function was ignored.

Then one day I wanted to actually use it, and I turned it on and great big black floaties came shooting out of the jets.

I didn't know how to get it clean, I tried really hot water, vinegar and baking soda, bleach (all seperatly) mixed in with a tub full of water and running through the jets. Yet every time I would still have the black floaties come spurting out of the jets.

I finally hunted around Google and found the tip to use dishwasher detergent. It doesn't foam up like normal cleaners and soap, so you can use it with the jets.

It took about 5 times of filling up the tub, running the detergent in it for 20 minutes, and then draining and running a rinse of clean water... each time there were less and less and less floaties coming out of the jets.

Today I used my tub for the first time in years with the whirlpool... and I had forgotten how much it is a relaxing place for me to unwind, and rest. Now that I'm trying to exercise more- the jets give a great massage to weary legs and a sore back!


So... what do you have in your house and life that you've forgotten about the simple pleasure you get from it?

I'm looking around my house to see what else I already have that I've forgotten about... that when I first got it I loved, and it's slowly gotten lost underneath piles of other stuff. Maybe I'll start sharing them once a week... that seems like a neat blog post... tuesday findings... :)