Let's fill our Saturday!

This morning we went to the Greater Andover Days (GAD) parade. Owen's school was doing a "float" in the parade. It ended up being a bunch of kids, parents and a few faculty members WALKING the entire route in a cluster. The theme was 80's, "Our Future's So Bright". Several people were dressed in their neon and rolled jeans. My kids wore their Wheatland Warrior shirts. (Allie was excited to get Owen's old one from Kindergarten.)

Nice shirts!

Owen started holding a sign, but ended up passing out candy.

After the parade (luckily we were at the beginning) we went and found daddy and Allie to watch the rest of the parade.

My crew

After lunch, I took Owen to this new place called Jumpy Jump Land for a birthday party. His friend Jaxon was turning 8. It was a blast! He got to play with a bunch of his buddies.

Owen and Xander

Sara and Paige

Owen, Jake and Sorn

Birthday Boy, Jaxon

(I love his shirt!)

Busy, but GOOD!

This has been a very busy week! We haven't done anything out of our regular routine, but we've been getting ready for our BUSY weekend. Friday was the first day of our weekend. I have been working on getting the fall fundraiser for Owen's school ready to start. It's been an experience! But at 3:10 on Friday afternoon I was hosting the pep assembly in front of the ENTIRE student/faculty body of Wheatland Elementary. I made sure I was dressed for it!

I had arranged for the PE teacher to have "Eye Of The Tiger" playing on the speaker as the kids came into the gym. The principal, Mr. Armbrister, introduced me and I took over. I felt great about it. My dear friend, Kris, decided to video record the whole thing! I can't wait to see that!!!

Then Friday evening, I got to go to dinner with my girlfriend, Julie. It was so nice! Afterwards, we met Angela at the Holiday Galleria. I so meant to have our picture taken together. But I did manage to get a pic of this vendor wearing custom made pants. They were made from Italian upholstery! AWESOME!

Training-week 27

14 Yassos! I did it! It was way better than the last time I ran 12 Yassos. However, reality is starting to kick-in. As I was running on the treadmill, my mind started playing games with me. I started hearing an unfamiliar voice.

"You are running 26.2 miles in 2 weeks!"

"Who, in their right mind, runs 26.2 miles?"

"You've never ran that far before!"

"You're going to DIE!"

Yep, good old Doubt, Anxiety and Nervous all decided to join me on my last real training run. All of the sudden, it seems so sudden. I start wondering if I've trained right. I can't cram any more serious training in before October 9th. Am I really ready?

Then reach for another gummy bear (I eat on after each Yasso) and I realize I only have 4 more in the bag. Before I started today, I thought if I could just get 12 GOOD Yassos in, I would be happy. HOLY COW! I was going to get all 14 Yassos that I had planned. I won't lie, my legs started getting tired at 12, but that's what this training is for. So my legs learn, and I don't give up, to run on tired legs. The last 2 were tough, but not impossible. And as soon as I was done, I took my picture and my legs felt AWESOME!!! I had done it! And I didn't die!

No one can predict exactly what's going to happen on the fateful Sunday in Chicago. But I've done all I can think of and have no regrets. This will be my last training post. My next running post will be post marathon. If you happen to think about it on October 9th, send me your positive thoughts. I'll take all that I can get!

Race for the cure

This morning, the kids and I got up early and drove to Town East Mall for the "Race for the cure" Komen 5K. We were part of a team that was started for my friend Kris Jittawait. Before I show the pictures from the event, I want to thank my family and friends that sponsored me. Our team was one of the top 2 individual/teams in raising money!!! Now for the pics!!

It's early, but she's READY!

Owen and Noah, Kris's son.

Kris and myself, Allie took this pic.

Don't we look TALL!!!

We saw our friends the Farleys.

I walked/ran the non competitive 5K, pulling this!

I finished it in 1:30:35. :)

The weather was perfect! We even saw hot air balloons.

Even Storm Troopers fight this battle!

The Pink Ladies

During the Survivor Parade, Kris's family watches proudly as she walks by.

They had all the survivors stand on the bleachers for a group photo, they had a group sing an amazing song and then let several doves go at the end. Just as we watched them fly above us, we all thought the same thing. "Please, don't poo on us!" But just as the final dove flew over the survivors, you can only guess what happened. Luckily, NO ONE got hit!

The only victim of the poo.

League of Room Moms

Yep! There are 6 of us. 6 moms from the second grade. We are each different. We each bring something special to our group. We've known each other since Kindergarten (our kid's Kindergarten class, that is). And now we are the moms who get to make second grade a FUN and EXCITING year. We get to plan ALL THE PARTIES!!!!

This morning we met at Panera, to discuss the up coming Halloween/Fall Party. We talked about that for about 10 minutes... we were there for over an hour. It was so enjoyable to sit, drink and chat about life. We each have our own story, but second grade ties us together. I can tell you from this meeting, it is going to be a GREAT year.

Dancing Queen

This past month, Allison has been taking dance lessons (tap and ballet) from the North YMCA Dance Academy. To say she loves it, is an understatement. I've been able to take a few pics. She'll be doing this all school year, ending with a big dance recital in May. I'm so proud of my tiny dancer!

First day

Learning to shuffle

Ballet at the bar

Arabesque

She's READY!!!

Build-My-Own Bear

Today, the kids and I went to Michael's and checked out all the goodies. Allie, my little arts and crafts guru, fell in love with this bear kit. So I bought it and knew we would have a fun little project to do today, just the 2 of us.

It even came with a birth certificate.

She impressed me with how willing and eager she was to learn and do much of it herself. There were a few things that mommy had to do, but in the end she was the one who built the bear. The pictures below show the entertaining process.

She's learning to sew.

She had to try on the tiara.

Stuffing it with fluff.

Very focused.

A finished bear.

Now to dress the princess.

The finishing touch.

I did it!