Creating the Good Life...

Run Baby Run.....I did it!!!

I finished the Berlin Marathon (26.3 miles) in 3 hours and 55 minutes!!  Whoot Whoot!!!  I loved every single minute of it!!!  It was an incredible high....a massive rush....WOW...I would do it again tomorrow (OK, maybe not tomorrow....but next week certainly!)

On your mark, get set, go....

On Friday we went to check out the starting point (so glad we did b/c yesterday in was MANIC!!)

Saturday went out to a huge Expo to get my race number

The guys had to drop me off about two hours before the race started....very handy to have all those runners around to take our picture!

There for forty thousand runners and over a million spectators.  The course packed like this the whole way (which was the only frustrating part as it made it very difficult to maneuverer/move up.)  There were sixty bands lining the course playing all kinds of music (I only used my iPod about ten of the 26+ miles.) 

Spike got this shot at the mile 10 water station. 

At about mile 15 I ran right off the course to give my boys a little lovin'.  We got to see each other five times over the course of the 26+ miles which was pretty amazing with SO MANY people running/supporting.  I was prepared to just meet them after I finished and was so delighted and SIKED every single time I saw their crazy smiling shouting faces!!

Going strong at twenty miles.  I think the last six miles were my very best.  I felt so good and just cranked up the speed.  The packs had thinned (but only slightly) so I was able to rev it up a bit.

 

And then poof...it was over.  Dean got the medal (I figured his support was "gold medal" worthy, so immediately upon our reunion he took possession.)

It was an awesome trip. Berlin is amazing.  Dean was a super star traveler and by all accounts Addie has a super time at home. 

I will get some pics of the city and our trip up when I can...right now I have some train tracks to build and a little girl about to wake up from her nap.

XO

PS When I wasn't running I was reading....totally hooked on this series...swore it was not for me, but I am sucked right in!

Berlin Bound

It seems time has just slipped through my fingers these last few weeks.   From the moment I wake up (super early....criminally early if you ask me) until my head hits the pillow (late) at night we seem to be on the GO (and I mean GO with big capital letters!!) 

Right now (well in about twenty minutes) our "GO" is Berlin, Germany....we are off for the weekend...we are off for my marathon.....26.5 miles....here I come....I am ready....I am siked!

All the training....all the hard work.....all the preparation (and eating of FAR TOO many starchy carbs for my liking) are about to be put to the test!!  Your thoughts and prayers and well wishes are SO APPRECIATED!!!!  Thanks!!

Full report to come early next week....earlier rather than later....honest :)

XOXO

She needs a holiday and I need a leg massage

Yesterday Addie asked to go visit our friend Kathy.  I said "We can't go see her Addie, she's still on holiday." Addie replied (with a very dramatic hand up to her forehead like she was totally exasperated) "I need a holiday!" followed by a big sigh and a "Really!!"  I started laughing hysterically and liking nothing more than getting us to laugh, She went around all day telling anyone who will listen that she really needed a holiday.  She is such a funny girl!!  The things she says and her little mannerism just amaze me...quite a little character for being only 20 months old!!

Words + Photos = this week's Pencil Lines Layout:

I must say I LOVE the way the layout came together...love all the bold brightness and can't get enough of those black on white letters (found them at the gas station (dirt cheap), being advertised as lettering for garbage cans/mailboxes/house plaques.)

Becky Novacek is our Guest Designer this week.  I simply love everything about Becky...her amazing scrapbooking and rockin' photography are only the tip of the iceberg!  The faith, honesty and sensitivity with which she writes are so refreshing and uplifting (and her play lists always rock!!!!)

On the running front...I ran 20 miles again today.  It was a GREAT run (much better than last week.)  I got the most incredible second wind at 15 miles....I felt like superwoman the last bit of the run.  It drizzled most of the time, but at about mile 17 it started to POUR....the torrential downpour/flash-flood kind of rain.  My feet were literally swimming in water and my skin burned with the force of the rain but I was NOT going to give up with only three miles left.  So glad I don't have to go that distance again until the actual race day!

I am off to watch football (of the NFL variety) with Spike (and hopefully get a very good leg massage!!!!)

Hope you have a wonderful week!!

XO

sooooo......

I have spent the last hour shopping on line at Gymboree (very big sale if you have little people.)  I got on the computer with strict intentions of updating my blog and then getting right off, but then of course I had to check email and then of course I had to follow the link on the HUGE SALE email and then of course I had to order about one of everything for Addie.

So, here I am....

Today Dean started back to school:

He was SO EXCITED!!!!  I can't wait to go pick him up in an hour and see how he got on.

He looks so darn cute in his uniform!!  My grandpa bought him new school shoes (took him to the Nordstrom sale, marched him right up to a salesperson and told them to find him the best shoes in the store.....just like he used to take me and my brothers every year.)  When we put the shoes on today he said "Ah...the shoes my great-grandpa got me."  What a good little memory he has!

In running news....after much back and forth, we have decided to leave Addie with friends and only take Dean to Berlin for my marathon.  He is so excited to watch me run (mind you he is SURE I am going to win.....thanks for the vote of confidence buddy, but I don't think it's in the cards.)  After looking at the course and seeing how much ground (mostly via subway) the guys are going to have to cover to meet me at the checkpoints, it just seems like we will all be less stressed if Addie stays with friends.

Other running news....I ran 20 miles on Saturday.  The first fifteen felt AMAZING and I ran so fast I thought perhaps I needed to make this whole running thing a career.....let's just say the last five miles proved to be much much harder (and much slower!)  But I am happy to have it done and am anxious to do it again this Saturday.  I think above all I have to eat MORE.  I sure feel like I eat a lot, but I just didn't have the gas I needed for the really long distance.  (as much as I would like it to be a free ticket to eat as much chocolate and sweets as I want, it's the rice and potatoes I have to drastically increase....not so much looking forward to that.)

I did 8 miles today, will do 5 tomorrow and then have a few days off to get ready for another 20 miler.

In scrapbooking news:  Pencil Lines has had the most amazing sponsorship and guest designers lately....please tell me you have checked it out!!!

Two weeks ago Jenni Bowlin sponsored the whole Design Team (I carried all the kits back from Seattle in one of my suitcases.)  Mellette Berezoski was our Guest Designer....doesn't get much better than Jenni Bowlin + Mellette!!!  

 

This week is our 100th sketch and Kelli Crowe is our Guest Designer.  I simply adore ALL of her work and feel giddy with I think about her working with us!!

I loved working on a transparency (I always shy away from them b/c they are very tough to photograph for upload, but Lillian saved me by pulling out her clothes line during a break in the rain...thanks!!)  The story is about Addie's new "bunny."  (she had a pink bunny she adored and took EVERYWHERE....we lost it in Seattle...TERRIBLE!!!  after trying out nearly every cuddly toy in all of the Seattle and the surrounding suburbs, Dean found this bear in my mom's garage....Addie took one look at it, squealed with delight and shouted "BUNNY"  she cuddled it and kissed it and has not put it down since...she insists it's "BUNNY", NOT A BEAR...PLEASE DO NOT CALL IT A BEAR!)

The photos were some I took last week at Anna's:

 

 

 

I have so many other pictures I want to share (we had a great weekend....friends over for BBQ on Saturday and a BBQ/birthday party on Sunday) but I think I have run out of time...must get Addie up and get ready to make a move to get Dean from school.

Before I dash off, the November 2nd is the date for the next Scrapping Angles (holiday) workshop in Buckden.  Anna is sure to have the details posted very soon.  It's going to be AMAZING, so do not miss out!!!  

XOXO