Happy Holiday's!

I can't believe the first week of December is already past! November just flew by and before I know it Christmas will be here.

We decided kind of last minute to go and spend thanksgiving in Phoenix with Rich's brother and his wife. We wound up stopping and seeing Carlsbad Caverns on the way out, and after Thanksgiving we drove up to the Grand Canyon where Rich and his brother did a rim to rim hike in one day. It was a fun week being able to visit with them, and see Rich's parents that flew out for Thanksgiving as well. I'll be putting up tons of pictures next week on our family blog with all the fun we had.

This past week I've been volunteering at the school every day. It was a busy and full week, but still fun and enjoyable. I am looking forward to things slowing down this week a little bit and trying to get caught back up at home.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Have a great month of December. I know I've got lots of plans to bake since I missed all my holiday baking last year. :)

Oh my...

I have neglected this blog! And... I haven't even been emailing people regularly either. :(

The last few weeks have just been busy. Between school stuff, church stuff, and other stuff we have had something almost every evening or afternoon.

Halloween came and went and I still haven't gotten the one picture I managed to take of three of our four kids uploaded. I forgot to get one of all four together, since Ashley went and trick or treated with a friend instead of with the rest of us. Also I actually dressed up for our ward Halloween party- I'll have to grab a picture from my friend to document that I have dressed up for Halloween as an adult!

so... what can I talk about here... some highlights...

Oh! I've lost 14.6 pounds so far on weight watchers! I'm down two sizes in my jeans... I was in a tight 12 and today I put on some capri's that are size 8!

My friend launched her first crafting DVD, and so it's been exciting watching the process she has gone through with it. If you are into crafting and stamping and know about Cricket's go and check out her blog www.mypinkstamper.com

I'm finding that the 2 1/2 hours that Angie is in school each day go way toooo fast! I can never get everything done that I want to get done in that time. Even if it's just relaxing and reading for the afternoon. The time just FLIES by!

I made bread this last week after not making bread for over a year... and we'll just say I'm surprised I still registered weight loss when I went to my weight watchers meeting today... :) Honey Butter and homemade bread are a temptation that I can't say no to! :)

And now I have one girl in her pj's and two girls that are supposed to be taking baths/showers and getting pj's on... but aren't. So I'd better get off of here and get them moving. :)

I'll try and post more soon... and get a few pictures up as well.

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! :)