"We're not in Kansas anymore."

I guess I took a complete break from everything over the Thanksgiving break, including blogging. We spent the past few days at Karl and Ashley's house and got to see almost all of Alan's extended family. We did what most people did - ate, watched football, and of course shopped:

Austin and Ashtyn loved Bailey, and I know she'd say the feeling was mutual. They were so sweet. Here's some pretty serious Wii playing with Austin, Bailey, and Alan:

Karl and Ashley were awesome hosts, but I bet they're glad to have their house back to normal. I know I'm looking forward to being back in my own bed tonight. I have an interesting week that starts with jury duty tomorrow followed by decorating for Christmas (with Junior's help) tomorrow night, so I'm guessing it'll be a more blog worthy week.

I'll take this, thanks.

Junior approves of the new dining table and has claimed it as his domain. It's a good thing this table is ginormous to accomodate his weight. Perhaps some day when we have chairs, he'll lose his right to sit on furniture where we EAT.

It hurts so good!

I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but recently we joined the gym. I've dragged Bailey to spin class, body pump, and I've tried Zumba on my own. We've also gone a couple times just to run on the treadmills.

I probably shouldn't point out things that make me look old, but oh well. During spin class I did something to my knee and was up that night for three hours due to the sheer PAIN. After Zumba, I could still feel the muscle soreness after 5 days. Wednesday, Bailey and I went to Body Pump, and here I am two days later up at 5:00 a.m. taking two Advil. Body Pump uses free weights and whatever you call it - a barbell? As we were leaving the class, I literally could not lift my arm high enough to talk on my cell phone. I had to bend my head DOWN to the phone. Bailey and I were laughing so hard at how our muscles were reacting, particularly when we had to walk down the stairs to the lobby of the gym.

Bailey is suggesting swimming next, and I am all for that. A nice warm pool to soothe these aching muscles.

Tomorrow is a 5K that I'm not ready for, but I might attempt anyway. It's strictly for girls and women, and the motto is "run like a girl." I can do that! But only if these muscles have recovered some. Still...it's a GOOD PAIN!

Thank You!

Just wanted to say thanks to our veterans out there, and especially the ones I can call family!



Our school made a wall of fame, so I placed "bricks" with Dale's, Leigh's, and Karl's names on it. We went outside by the flagpole for a short memorial, and I thought it was sweet to see such a large group of kids saying the pledge (even if they don't know where their hearts are). We say the pledge every day in class, but it's not something most of us do on a regular basis. We have some kids that don't recite the pledge because of religious reasons, which sometimes annoys me, but I guess I appreciate that we live in a country where they're allowed to honor their beliefs.



Just thought the photos were cute and wanted to share!

Kaboom!

We got up early to go watch this:

The sound from the explosives was as cool as the implosion itself. But the eerie part was afterwards when the dust cloud started coming towards us. Made me think of 9-11.

My fellow Americans...

Well, I guess I'm off to vote here in a little while. I know a lot of people who voted early, but I don't like to do that. I like the energy of the actual day! For me, it's that one special day where you feel very patriotic and very much a citizen! And trust me, I only "get into it" on this one day. I don't follow the campaigns very closely, I don't watch the debates, I just don't like either candidate by the time election day comes around. But you know what I do like? I like my money. And even though it won't matter, I've got to go vote to have a voice on what I think about people who want to "redistribute" MY money.

Have fun watching all the hoopla tonight!

A Murderer and a Martian

That's me as Lizzie Borden, trying to convey my "I'm in a daze because I just hacked up my parents" look, and Alan as Marvin the Martian, obviously. Alan's costume was pretty darn cool. And pretty darn time-consuming to create. He pulled it off pretty nicely!