Try this at home - LOVE it!

I consider myself a low maintenance girl. I usually leave the house with my hair in a ponytail and no make-up. Being the mom of 2 boys meant that styling hair was not really anything I had to worry about, except on that rare occasion when Fred & I had someplace to go, besides a date night to Target & a movie.

BUT

Now I have a girl! Mia is a princess, and she will sit patiently as I brush, comb and style her hair - as long as I promise that whatever I'm doing will be "fancy". Now, in the '80s I could tease, braid, style like nobody's business, but I'm a little out of practice. Still I had to share this CUTE heart braid that I've been doing this month.

Like it? This was my first attempt, and I've gotten MUCH better at making the heart look pretty good, even with my daughter's baby fine hair. I had BIG plans to get this post out prior to Valentine's Day. Seems to be a theme with this blog. Oh well, I think it's still worth posting simply because the site that I got the idea from has TONS of cute hairstyles. It's called Adopt a 'Do, and the mom who writes this blog is super talented and comes up with tons of great ideas. There's even a video tutorial for the Flip-Braided Heart (that's what it's called). Trust me, if you have girls with medium/long hair, you want to check out this blog.

Catching Up

The problem with treating my blog like an online scrapbook of sorts, is that I get bogged down with chronology (is that even a word?). I feel like I can't move forward until I've covered everything that's already happened - but a lot of events are worthy of a great entry, so on days when I can barely string to words together (let alone sound intelligent or witty), I just save it for later.

Can you see the vicious cycle???

So, humor me as I catch up on the last 5 months of my life. It's really more for my benefit than anything else. Maybe then I'll be able to move forward with my blog life.

If I were really tech-savvy I would have a video clip that fast forwarded through these events, complete with music -- but I'm not, so you'll have to use your imagination.

We took the kids to see The Boss! This was their 3rd concert - their first was Toby Keith, and earlier this summer they went to AC/DC. They spent hours making signs. No...they didn't get shown; our seats were too far away - but they had fun making them.

Yes, my overtired son FELL ASLEEP mid concert. Out cold. He slept for about 4 songs - it would have been more, but I forced him to get up to see Bruce perform with the Dropkick Murphys. (I didn't want him to complain that I made him miss the best part of the concert).


My in-laws took the entire family to Atlantis Resort for 4 days!!! We swam with dolphins, conquered the slides, relaxed by the beach -- all 14 of us.

School started, and while my two boys were happier to go back than this picture would suggest, Mia was super excited to go!

My mom came to visit! We took Mia to the American Girl Bistro - so girly.

During our Expedition Everest trip, we visited this magical place...
What is it, you ask? Give Kids the World - the most amazing, fun, pixie dust filled place that ever existed. It's deserving of several blog posts, and I can't wait to get back there to spend some time volunteering.
The best part of the Expedition Everest trip (no, it wasn't running)was being able to see all of my Mom's Panel friends. All 16 of the 2009 group and several of the 2008 group made it down for this fun weekend. Plus, I got away with Fred for a few days as an added bonus.
The weekend of our 10K, we stayed in the same hotel where President Obama was speaking. This car? He wasn't in it - he was in the next car. He waved at us - sadly Fred missed it while he was taking a picture of this car.

HALLOWEEN - Thing 1, Thing 2 and Cinderella - yep, I made them all - never again (someone remind me that I said that next Halloween).

My baby turned 3!!! Another birthday another chance for me to make some insane cake.
You can see last year's creation HERE. And don't worry - if anyone thinks I'm favoring my little girl - the boys get the same effort, I've just been too tired afterward to blog about it.

After Thanksgiving, we took a trip to visit our favorite Mouse.

When we got back, Fred got an early Christmas present - SNOW!!!
Lots of Snow

Then it was Christmas...
There you have it a quick recap of major events that were worthy of a blog post or 2. I've set the bar pretty low, so my blogging should definitely be more consistent in 2010. Although, I'm already a little behind on that "post a week" resolution (sigh).

EE5K Update

Okay, I know what anyone who's been here in the last several months is thinking. EE5K update? What about a, "where the heck have I been" update. It's coming, I promise. One of my resolutions for the New Year is to keep this blog updated at least weekly. There. I said it. I WILL update my blog at least once a week in the year 2010.

(Okay, since I'm still editing this post on 1/6/10, I guess my New Year's resolutions aren't working out as planned *sigh*)

So...

Last time I wrote, I was training (rather unsuccessfully) for the Expedition Everest 5K on September ??? That date has come and gone, and I know you've been dying to find out how it went.

Well...

I'm not going to lie. It was hard. A week before the race, I still couldn't run a mile without stopping - pretty pathetic considering I trained for 20 weeks. There was no miracle that occurred during the race - I still couldn't complete the first mile without stopping to walk - but the important thing is that I did complete the race (in a torrential downpour, no less!)!!

Since then...

I've entered several other races. Fred has caught the running bug, although he's much more competitive than me. My kids have also run a couple of races with me - although it's tough when your 8 year old runs faster than you. Luckily, my mom's panel BFF, Jodi, lives nearby so she can run with me. We even completed a 10K (albeit in last place - you can read about that adventure HERE), and we are training for the Princess 1/2 marathon in March.

In case you're wondering, I DID finally complete a 5K without walking on November 28th, 2009!!!

And yesterday (really, yesterday - 1/5/01)? I ran 11 miles!!! Well I ran in cycles - run 10 minutes, walk one -- but still, 11 miles!! I couldn't move afterward, and I'm not really looking forward to upping that distance, but I've come a LONG way, don't you think?

If I could only...

think about something (other than running) while running, I'd be all set.

WARNING: yes, this is another whiny post about my EE5K training. You can stop reading and keep those 2 minutes of precious time if you've heard it all before.

Seriously, from the moment I get to the end of my street, I start thinking about:

• How my neighborhood is built like an Escher painting. No matter which direction I turn, it's uphill - how can that be?

• How my legs feel sore & tired. Running isn't good on your joints, maybe I'm only asking for an early onset of arthritis by doing this. (yes, I know -- being overweight isn't good for your heart OR your self-esteem, but this doesn't cross my mind when I'm running)

• How ill-equiped I am. I don't own a pair of running shoes - I currently run in New Balance (gasp) walking shoes, I wear a cotton shirt, and I don't even know what wicking fabric is. I even have to CARRY my iPod since I don't have one of those cute little ones that you strap to your arm.
  

• My iPod - I still haven't made a play list, so I just put it on shuffle. Why oh why do I have so many James Blunt & Josh Groban songs on there, and when will I get rid of my Christmas music?

...but I know if I could think about something (anything) other than all of that, I'd be all set. Today I stopped running to trudge up a never-ending hill. A song came on that would be a PERFECT recital dance. I was so absorbed in that thought process that I missed the turn for my street!

Now I just have to figure out how to think AND run at the same time.

The agony of defeat

I wrote this post a few months ago but forgot to share. For those of you who don't have a Cub Scout or who have never seen a Pinewood Derby, it's a rite of passage...the boys are given a block of wood (pine, I'm assuming), some wheels, and some nails and screws. They have to make a car out of the wood to be raced against the other cars. Some parents boys spend months designing an creating a car that is super cool to look at AND has the right amount of weight to fly down the track.

Okay, let's just say as crafty as I am -- anything involving cutting wood is beyond my realm of expertise. I just have images of someone winding up having to be rushed to the hospital to have their finger reattached. It's clearly a job for Fred.

Fred helped the boys design and cut out their cars. Once they were cut, I could join back in and help get them set up to paint and decorate the cars. Let it be noted that we had almost a month to build the car. When did we start?-two days before!! Really, just getting the cars made spelled V-I-C-T-O-R-Y in my book, and we were pretty proud of the fact that our boys really did do most of the work.

Race day results. They didn't win - that's okay, it's all about having fun right? Well, not really; however, I think Alex would have been okay with not winning -- except that he lost to his YOUNGER BROTHER -- why oh why did they have to pit brothers against each other? There were a few moments of fighting back tears, and the ride home was a little unpleasant, but everyone has recovered and they are eagerly anticipating the next Cub Scout race - raingutter regatta, space derby - whatever it is, I'm just glad my oldest will be out of cubs and not competing!

Wordless Wednesday: More photoshop fun

I know - it's supposed to be Wordless Wednesday, but I think I like the before photo better. I'm not much for the "hand-tinted" vintage look. Maybe I'll try playing with a photo that doesn't have a person in it. The glowing stars around the head were just part of the assignment.

Look what I can do!!!

So, we have this great computer. My husband has an AMAZING digital camera. He's a super technology geek (I mean that in the best possible way - I am in awe!) who designs incredible websites in his spare time. Me? I can email, resize pictures to have them printed, and surf the web.

That's where my technology skills end, seriously. But one of my favorite scrapbook gurus, Becky Higgins, alerted her readers to a FREE (yes free) 2 week photo editing class given by Jessica Sprague. If you don't know who that is - well, she does some pretty amazing digital scrapbooking, and although I'm still a paper & scissors kind of gal, I could stand to learn a few tricks.

I've actually considered paying to take one of her classes before, but I was afraid I would never get around to doing the assignments - money wasted, so I put it off. But this opportunity is PERFECT. No pressure! If I do the assignments - GREAT! If life gets too busy or I don't like the way she teaches, nothing's lost!

So far, so good. Our first assignment was to add a PNG frame & word art to a photo. The tutorial was super easy to follow, and I really like the way my photo turned out. I can't wait for tomorrow's lesson!