the cruise finale

Man, I didn't think I'd be so slow to post all of our cruise pictures.

Here are the last bunch.

Day 5 - our 3rd stop was St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

This was the only day we could call home without paying $2/minute.

We had heard St. Thomas was the place for great shopping, but we weren't finding the right spots I guess.

If you were in the market for diamonds or liquor - you could find that pretty much all the way down the street, in every other store.

My Premier "family" - LOVE them!

We had quite the time trying to decide on which beach to go to.

We asked "what's the best beach?" to LOTS of people.

Every cab driver told us something different - usually it was the further away ones so we'd have to pay more to get there.

Every store clerk told us something different.

Finally, we just had to pick one.

It was a good one.

Can you really go wrong picking a beach in the Caribbean?

We rented jet skis to share among the 7 of us!

Dave worked his skills again and bartered with the guy to get us a great deal!

We enjoyed some yummy food in the shade.

Day 6 was spent at sea.

Day 7 - was our last stop at a private island in the Bahamas owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines.

We got lucky - the cruise 2 weeks before couldn't stop this day because of rough waters.

I didn't get any pictures this day, except of this...

I found a hermit crab!  But I wouldn't hold it.

Dave wasn't scared though.

The rest of these pictures are leftovers that didn't really fit anywhere else.

I loved laying in the sun.  Dave prefers the shade.

Yes, he really was sleeping.

There were shows every night in the Stardust Theatre, so we caught several of them.

Me and my friend and Premier "daughter" Kim!  She's a rockstar!

And yes, my husband is asleep again.

It's funny that everyone else is dressed cute and I'm in my KState shirt AGAIN. This was the night of the overtime game - we watched the game at a bar outside on the deck, it was so nice!

These are the 5 other lovely ladies I got to spend 7 days with!

And that's the end.

My tan is faded.

I've barely been able to wear shorts or capris since being back.

The Caribbean is now just a memory.

But I DO still have that $50 Pepsi cup in the picture above.

$50 got me unlimited Pepsi for the whole 7 days.

You may think that is rediculously expensive and totally not worth it.

But do you know how much I love Pepsi?

It was worth it.

Overall, after this trip, we decided we LOVE to cruise!

Next on my list - Alaska and the Meditteranean

Thanks Premier - for 7 days in paradise!

Dave's toy

Spring means that it's time for Dave to bring his toy home.

His 1970 Cuda.

It stays at our old house - his grandma's house that is owned by the family, in the garage for the winter.

But as soon as the weather is nice he brings it home.

He loves this car.

And so do the kids - when it's not running.

They are a little unsure about the loud motor.

I just had to include this picture - it makes me laugh outloud, even if the light is bad.

The minute it comes home he gets it looking it's best.

And then I laugh as I watch how nervous he gets when the kids do this...

Yeah, even though Mason is a good 2 feet from the car - Dave is FREAKING as this picture is being taken.

I'm not going to try to give you lots of details about this car- I really know close to nothing.

I didn't realize what a big deal this car is until I rode around town in it.

People stop and turn.  People wave and whistle.

People drive really slow by you to get a good look.

I don't know much - but I know that it's a pretty cool car.

And I know that Dave is PROUD of this car.

Mostly proud because he and his dad redid the entire thing.

Lots of father/son time in the garage.

It's the car he drove to high school.

I wonder if he and Mason will do the same thing one day...

I think that would be pretty cool.

finally spring

We are very much enjoying the fact that spring is now in full bloom.

Lots of walks to the water to see the ducks

Lots of bike rides.

Lots of walks to the "circle" so Taylor can "run" (like mommy)

Lots of time outside - swinging, playing in the sandbox, riding cars and bikes in the driveway.

We are spoiled with Nana and Papa in our same neighborhood.

When the weather is nice, one of our favorite things to do is to walk or ride to Nana and Papa's house.

Taylor can ride her bike all the way there and back.

There's a big hill that we used to have to hold on to her so she wouldn't fly down it on her bike.

But now she's learned how to ride the brakes and not pedal and can ride down all by herself.

Mason's choice mode of transportation is to WALK - and pull the wagon - by HIMSELF.

He pulls the wagon all the way there (5 blocks?)

No one can help him.

We beg him to get in so we can pull him - knowing we'll get there MUCH faster.

But he refuses.

So he pulls the wagon all the way there, and all the way back.

We obviously can't plan these walks unless we know we have ample time.

It's always exciting to get our garden ready to go too!

This is where our garden has been the past 2-3 years.

With lots of ashes from the fireplace dumped in.

We've loved our garden the past few years and have been trying to figure out how we can have more space.

So this year we decided to plow up a portion of our yard that is to the side of our deck.

It's just one corner of our yard - that's not really used for anything and we don't think we'll miss this space at all.

So now we have plenty of room to plant lots more than we have in past years!

Hope you are all enjoying this long - awaited Spring!

pink eye

So we got rid of the strep, but are now dealing with pink eye.

I've never had pink eye, nor have the kids.
I didn't really know what it looked like.
How do you get it? 
Do you have to pick it up somewhere?

Today when they both woke up with eyes crusted over, and gunky stuff coming out of their eyes all day - I knew something was wrong. 

Mason's just got worse and worse.
Red, swollen eyes that hurt him.  He can't stop rubbing them.
He screamed and screamed at nap time and I ended up having to hold him while he slept in my arms for his nap - I won't complain about that.

Poor guy.  My heart just broke for him to watch him so agitated all day.

Taylor's eyes have lots of the same issues - but she doesn't look quite as bad.  I hope she stays that way.
I think I have a small hint of it too - but maybe it's just my normal eye problems, I don't know.

So I guess we get to stay contained for a few days.
Will you pray that our little guy gets over this soon - at least the part that is hurting him and making him miserable. 

Cruise Continued: Tortola, British Virgin Islands

On to day 4 of our cruise.  This day we stopped at Tortola, part of the British Virgin Islands.

We had another excursion planned - this time, it was more of a touristy one. We had some time to shop around for a little bit before.

We got to ride in this open-air taxi type truck and toured what seemed like the entire island.  I know we went pretty much all around it.  So today was full of scenery shots.  Sometimes those are boring when you weren't there yourself.  But maybe you'll enjoy them. 

Marveling more at these GInormous ships.

Our company for the day - minus my brother-in-law, Steve.

Our ship at the port in Tortola.

One fun part of the tour was that we goto make lots of stops along the way for local food and drinks.

At this little bar in the hills, we spotted an orange tree.

One of the locals got us one and cut it open for us to eat - yummy!

I couldn't believe how far away it seemed we were from our ship.

We stopped here for lunch.

"Wow this place looks like a screensaver!"...I'm not a big movie quote person - I never remember ANY of them.  But this one is fresh enough in my mind I did. Anyone know what movie it's from?

We enjoyed lunch in the shade.

And then got time to swim or relax before heading on.

here's the trucks we were in...

It was a fun day!  And our ONLY day out of all 7 of them that we were NOT on a beach or by a pool.  It was a nice change.

Someday I'll be done with our cruise pictures I promise.

diary of a running girl

All is better at my house now.

And our taxes are done too. Man, we are such procrastinators.
And we started working on our garden!
We are adding a NEW area this year, because we've loved it so much and the space we have had is TOO small for all we want to do - I'll show you more on that later.

I am also trying to get ready to run a 5K in less than 2 weeks.
Some friends and I are going to try to run it.
We started talking about this in December and knew we needed to get started training THEN.

Can I please tell you how HUGE running this 5K is for me?
I ran one year of cross country in high school and was an alternate at state. I hated it.
I only did it because a track coach watched me run the 400m and said I'd be a good distance runner.
REALLY - because the 400 is still a sprint. And that's what I did was sprint.
100m, 200m, 400m, 4x100 relay, 4x400relay
Notice a pattern here...NOTHING over 400m. That's once around the track.

But I tried a year of distance running.

I think my friend and I (who ran with me most days) spent more time trying to figure out how we could NOT run than we did actually running. As in...which buildings around town had water fountains so we could run in and grab a drink as we ran by, more time complaining and wondering if we just jumped out in front of a car on accident and got hit maybe we wouldn't have to finish our run, OR we'd cut through a field where the weeds were over our head - we knew exactly where our coaches would be sitting in their truck waiting for us to pass, and we knew they couldn't see us dash into this field. We'd run straight through on the path that had been there from running it before, and out the other side - taking a good chunk of distance out of our run.
Man, that makes me sound like quite the rebel, huh? I really was a good kid. I followed almost ALL rules.
And I will admit I was a follower on this one...once we saw a few of the senior boys do it - we figured we'd do it too. So at least we wouldn't be the only ones in trouble.

I did get up to 5,6, and 7 mile runs. But it was NEVER fun. I hated it. But I'm not a quitter so I wasn't going to quit the season.

I was in great shape in high school - I played 4 years of Varsity basketball and ran track. And I loved working out and lifting weights.  But I guess we're all in great shape when we're that age, huh?
Then in college I think I can count the number of times on 2 hands that I worked out - in 4 1/2 years.
After that - absolutely NOTHING.
When I started my Butz and Gutz class this past fall - it's the first time I had worked out in probably 5 or 6 years.
Now as far as running goes - I haven't done that since those days of cheating my runs and cutting through the fields.

I tried to get a few LITTLE runs here and there on the treadmill while it was still cold - but I wasn't getting very far or even CLOSE to prepared for this 5K.
Then April 1 hit - WHOAH - we have 3 weeks.
The weather also finally became nice.
So I have slowly been trying to get some runs in.

My first day running outside was horrifying.
I don't know my distance - so I've just been going by time.
I ran for 8 minutes and about fell over dead.
My lungs hurt more than anything. I could barely walk or talk.
And I came to the conclusion that running on a treadmill and running outside is very different. 
Outside was much harder than I thought.
Dave put his money on the fact that I would NOT be running this 5K.
But things have gotten better!

After that first time, it hasn't hurt near as bad.
I did 9 minutes - it was HARD!
Then 11 minutes - getting a little easier
Then 12 minutes.
Predicting that I was running anywhere from a 10-12 minute mile.  I hope no one is laughing at that time.
Today I took off, and decided to get out of my neighborhood.
See, until now, I wanted to stay IN my neighborhood, close to home, because I wasn't really sure how far I could make it and I didn't want to have to walk too far to get home if I had to stop running.

I don't have a watch with a timer, so I've been using the timer on my phone.
But I don't take my phone with me (b/c I don't have anywhere to put it). I just leave it with Dave, and he yells out to me as I approach the driveway how much time I had run.
The bad thing about this is that I know the clock is close - all I can think about is the clock - how long has it been???  I wonder if I've hit 5 minutes yet?  I wonder if it's been 10 minutes.  My mind is consumed on the clock that I can't see.
I got an armband for my ipod and now I run with music so that helps.
I was so consumed by the time, and was really just focused on beating my previous time (meaning being able to run longer than I did the day before without stopping).

So today I left it with him and decided to venture further - hoping to just increase the 12 minutes I did yesterday, but not really knowing where I was going and when I'd turn around to head back.

The good thing about getting away from home is that I actually forgot about the clock. 
I wondered how much time it had been, but I also realized that I was feeling okay.
And when I knew I had run longer than I had EVER before, it got me excited to keep GOING and run more.

I found my way back home - to find Dave waiting in SHOCK that my timer read 22 minutes. 
He just figured I had been walking a lot.  But I only walked for 1 minute!

I was then super excited, and proud of myself and very curious to know how far it was since we haven't measured my distance at all up to this point.  So we got in the car and drove it.  I was PRAYING it was close to 2 miles, but I really didn't know.

And it was - pretty much 2 miles exactly!!  WHOOOHOOOO!!

I still don't know if I can run 3.  But I'm way closer than I thought. 
We'll be okay if we have to run some and walk some.
But I'll see what I can do in the next 12 days.

A few things I am learning through this new little running phase:
*running feels good - physically (not DURING, but later) and mentally
*I kind of get hooked, even though I just ran a few hours ago, I'm already looking forward to my next run so I can "beat it". 
*I don't know if I could run without something pushing me - the clock, a person, a goal?  I'm competitive, so I don't know if I could just go out and run for the heck of it.  Right now I'm being super competitive with myself - trying to beat what I did the day before.
*I need some new music to run to - anyone have good running songs I can put on my ipod?
*My daughter now wants to be a runner like me - she puts on her shoes and wants to run all over the driveway, and she loves to run laps in the cul de sac near us.  She makes me feel good. She makes me feel like I'm a REALLY good runner and it's something that I've been doing for a long time.  When in fact, she doesn't really realize that it's something mommy just picked up 2 weeks ago - and who knows how long it will last. She's good for my self-esteem.

That's about all I've come to so far.

Hopefully I didn't completely bore you with my "diary of a running girl".
There may not be much more to this story - until the day of the 5K.

So I'll leave you in suspense.
Do I make the 3.1 mile run or not?

easter eggs and strep

We interrupt this presentation of paradise to bring you 3 cases of strep and a double ear infection...and Easter.

Our Easter weekend started out wonderfully....

And it continued to be wonderful as we enjoyed easter baskets and an egg hunt before church services at Dave's parents church early and our church at 1l.

Then onto lunch at the Breadbasket.

While we waited for family to get there, we played at a near by building.  Neither child was ok with having their picture taken, so I had to go with all candid shots. I BEGGED them to do one together - NO way Mom!

Taylor and her cousin Paige

By the time lunch was over Dave was not feeling well at all - barely ate.  And Taylor was VERY warm and not feeling well either. She sat on her daddy's lap while we all ate - both of them just sitting there, not talking, not eating, not looking good at all.

So I took them home, helped them both get to bed and took Mason onto Papa and Nana's for an easter egg hunt.

He was VERY excited about all his yummy treats. I had to get him back on track after finding each piece of candy, because he would beg to open each one.

I was sad Taylor and Dave couldn't be there - but it was really fun having Mason there alone.

He rarely gets individual attention and I know I wouldn't have gotten to watch him hunt for eggs as well if his sister had been there too.

He was instructed to only find 9 eggs - to be fair for his cousins.  When I told him he was done, he kept saying "more egg".

I love Dave's parents backyard.  It seems that if I have my camera on me when I'm back there - I just click away, I can't help it...always curious to see what I end up with when I get home.

He had lots of fun with his cousins by himself.

We headed home for a nap to find the other 2 out cold.

Both with fevers.

So Mason and I got to enjoy ourselves Easter evening.

We got drive-thru dinner and then I took him to Blockbuster to rent a movie.

He was so stinkin cute in Blockbuster - I really just laugh out loud at him lots of the time.

He was a little rowdy.  He couldn't walk anywhere - he HAD to run.

Movies got knocked off the shelves.

Many got placed back in the wrong spot.

But he found his movie after holding up about 25 movies, one after another to see if I'd say yes or no.

He walked out with A Bug's Life and he wanted to get Cinderella for Taylor - on his own, he spotted it, picked it up and said something that I didn't understand.

I said "you want to get that for Taylor?" and he shook his head yes VERY big.

I wish I had more time with him on his own - he is just so much fun!

I had to remind myself of that today.

Today was a rough one.

Dad was home sick - in bed for 20 straight hours.

2 kids, back and forth from completely fine to horribly fussy.

Taylor was feeling better but kept saying her throat hurt.

Daddy got up at noon and drove himself to the Dr - barely able to walk out the door.

He came back with a confirmation of strep.

So with Taylor having all the same symptoms we decided to take her to get checked out too.

While we're at it - it didn't hurt to have them check Mason too.

To our surprise - he had a double ear infection.  We had no idea.

Both had yucky looking throats.

Everyone's on antibiotics but me.

I sure hope it stays that way.

Maybe I should just go back to the Caribbean.