Granny and Ear Piercing

For as long as I can remember my birthday has meant going to Granny's house. I am the oldest grandchild, therefore the first, born on my Granny's birthday. As we have gotten older it has been a bit more difficult to spend our birthdays together, but we always call one another on our birthdays.

The first birthday memory I have with my Granny is getting my ears pierced. When I was three and in preschool, I remember seeing other girls in my class who had their ears pierced. At only three, more than anything, I wanted to be like my friends and have my ears pierced too. As the story has been told to me, I came home from school one day and asked if I could get my ears pierced for my next birthday, knowing that it wasn't that far away. I begged, pleaded, and I'm sure threw quite a fit, but my parents stood strong and continued to tell me "no". Finally, after many days of me being persistant, determined and stubborn (traits I still possess...just ask Chad) to get what I want, mom promised me that when I turned 5 I could get my ears pierced. In her telling me this, I think she was hoping that the issue would not arrise for some time and that my persistance and determination would go away.

A year later when my fifth birthday was approaching, I asked mom if we were going to be in Oregon at Granny and Papa's house. Mom shared that we would be traveling to Oregon to celebrate not only our birthdays, but also Easter together. I was ecstatic and I responded with, "That's so great! Granny and I can get our ears pierced together!" Mom laughed hesitantly and said, "What do you mean, 'You can get your ears pierced together?'" I then proceeded to share with her that when I was 4 and I wanted to get my ears pierced, but couldn't, she had made a promise with me that when I turned 5 I could get my ears pierced. As the story goes, when we got to Oregon, Granny, Mom and myself went into Eugene and I got my ears pierced with my Granny.

I love my Granny dearly and this year we were able to celebrate our birthdays together. I don't think we have ever spent our birthdays together at a Mexican restaurant. The sombreros were great!

Thirteen Miles

the past five months, three months more seriously, i have been training for a half marathon with two other great friends/teachers from peter kirk. when the initial talk began about training for a half marathon my first thought was that there was going to be absolutely no way i was going to be able to run 13 miles. THIRTEEN MILES! when we began our training our first run was only 1 mile and i thought i was going to die. within a couple of weeks we were running 3 miles and then a few weeks later 5 miles. our training was very successful and before i knew it i was able to run 9 and 10 miles without stopping. the last week of our training schedule we rested on monday, completed a 10 mile run on tuesday, rested on wednesday, did a 20 minute interval run on thursday(which was about 2.5 miles), then rested on friday and saturday. i was a nut-case on saturday...i couldn't sit still, kept pacing around our apartment, peeing every few minutes due to hydrating myself, and just completely antsy for the half marathon i was going to run the following day. i loved the anticipated feeling.

sunday came and i was beyond excited and couldn't believe that our half marathon day was finally here. i awoke early to eat a huge bowl of oatmeal and a hard boiled egg for protein in order to allow time for my food to digest before race time. once the girls arrived we headed down to mercer island to sign in, warm-up, stretch and just calm nerves down before the race actually started. we all ran together for the first couple of miles, and as usual, mindy and danielle quickly pulled ahead. i later found out that at about mile 5 danielle pulled ahead of mindy and from then on the three of us ran individually until we reconnected at the finish line. i thoroughly enjoyed the training, the race, and the joy of crossing that finish line is an unexplainable experience, but i'm unsure if i will ever run another race of this great distance. runners have a certain build, one of which i do not have...i have been blessed with hips from my mom's side of the family and i think my hips add additional angled pressure on my knees, causing great pain after the race. a feeling that i am not fond of. although i do enjoy running and will continue to, my distances will be none as great as 13 miles. for now, i will be content with completing a half marathon within my goal time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, finishing at 2 hours and 19 minutes.

the picture above is of mindy, danielle and i before the race at 7 in the morning. the pic below is of me after the race, proudly wearing my half marathon jersey.

Amazing Husband

I was reading a few other blogs recently and throughout the month of February there were many posts about how amazing everyone's husbands are, stories of how they met, or celebrations of Valentine's Day. I absolutely love hearing how other couples have met and how they have fallen in love with one another. I thought it would be fun to share "our" story....

It was the spring of 1997 and both Chad and I were living in the dorms at the University of Idaho (Go Vandals!). Our halls were paired together as big brother-little sister halls and I was the external social chair for my hall. Therefore, my roommate and I spent many afternoons/evenings hanging out at the boys' dorm with roommates Wayne Stigge and Josh Nelson. My roommate had a small crush on Josh, but I was more interested in the boy next door...Chad. The more time we spent on the hall the more my roommate and I got to know many of the boys over there and the more I had my eye on Chad. Eventually my roomamte lost interest, but I continued to hang out. Many afternoons were spent playing Mario Cart in Alex and Chad's room and soon it became a routine of playing video games in the afteroons. Thursdays, or "No Thought Thursdays" became a routine as well. I would be invited over for pizza and we would watch Thursday night t.v. "No Thought Thursdays" always happened in Chad and Alex's room.

Eventually, after many Mario Cart afternoons and "No Thought Thursdays" I gained enough courage to talk to Wayne about how much I liked Chad, while the entire time Chad was thinking that I liked Wayne. Well, thank goodness for Wayne otherwise Chad and I probably would've never gotten together. Wayne shared with Chad that I liked him and at first Chad didn't believe him. Chad questioned Wayne how he knew and Wayne's response was "from the source". Chad's comment was "What source?" Wayne replied, "From the source." Finally Chad understood and slowly it progressed from there. Eventually Chad and I went out on a date...our first date was a children's ballet performance; however, it was near the end of the school year when Chad and I realized we really liked one another so we exchanged phone numbers and saw each other a few times that summer. When we returned to school in the fall we were "officially" dating.

I could not be more thankful for the man that I have fallen in love with, married and will share the rest of my life with. I love that he makes me laugh, constantly tells me how beautiful I am, is patient, kind, loyal, and loves me with every ounce of his being. I too love him more than anything.

This picture is from 2006 during our trip to Guatemala, but it's one of my favorites.

The "Kid" Has Returned

The last few days myself and many other Mariner fans have been waiting eagerly for the final say in whether Ken Griffey Jr. was going to make a return to Seattle or sign with the Atlanta Braves. The headline in this mornings Seattle Times has made my day, "The Kid Comes Home--Griffey Back Where His All-Star Career Began." The Mariners may not have the greatest record in wins, but having Griffey return to Seattle will definitely boost the energy and call more fans to the stadium. The next couple of years may be a little rough for the Mariners as the warm up to their new management/coaching staff and a new line-up, but I will continue to be a Mariner fan and cheer on my home team.

Snow Tubing

Saturday I took my Girl Scout troop up to Snoqualmie Summit to go snow tubing. We left early in the morning from Peter Kirk and headed up to the mountain for great fun. The weather was on our side as we came to the top of the pass and saw the sun glowing brightly. It was gorgeous. I really enjoyed watching and listening to the girls as the encouraged one another to go down the steep hill. They are such a cute and fun-loving group of 2nd and 3rd graders.