On Sunday, I finished the Capital City Half Marathon! Two years prior....I was in labor! As usual it was definitely a mental and physical challenge. My goal was to finish around 1 hour and 55 minutes (8:49/mile)...and this is exactly what I finished in. It got a little warm at times, but I seemed to fair pretty well. Heath and Grayson met up with me around the 10 1/2 mile and ran with me until about mile 12. Typically I have a tough time around mile 10, so this was helpful for my support team to get me through the last bit. The last mile was pretty much all downhill...and I really pushed it at the end. When I was done with the race I was treated to a free 15 minute massage....it was fantastic! I even got 2 people working on me....stretching me and working the lactic acid out. I was also pleasantly suprised to see a few of the gals from the clinic who did the 5 miler. I was quite impressed that they got a group together to do this....something I've wanted to organize for awhile now.

I'm pretty sore all over today, but thats not such a bad thing. Now I need to start preparing for the triathlon and the next 1/2 marathon in Sunriver.

Happy Birthday Grayson!

On Saturday, May 17th we celebrated Grayson's 2nd birthday with family and a few friends at Papa's house. Luckily we had fantastic weather so we were able to hang out on the deck and in the yard.

It is so hard to believe that our little boy is two years old already! He has been such a blessing in our lives and we are so grateful for his happy little self. We get such a kick out of his funny little antics! After his party, I asked him how he liked his birthday party and he replied by blowing twice (like he was blowing out his candles). He really enjoyed playing with the kids in the yard, opening presents, getting "Happy Birthday" sung to him and uncle Jim blowing bubbles with him.

We look forward to another great year with our funny little boy!

Coming soon...

Pictures, that is. I promise! See, the thing is I just haven't taken any lately...not sure why, I guess I just forget. Normally I've got that darn camera out all the time. I think that I will do better now that the weather is supposed to improve...greatly.

So, our little boy is going to be two in 4 days! I can hardly believe it. He is such a sponge right now and will usually repeat (or try to with his version) all the words we ask him to say. This can pose a wee bit of a problem at times...like when mom slips up a bit. I just ignore it like its no big deal.

One of my favorite things that he will say now with prompting is "yuv you". Ahh....that melts the heart!

He loves to say hi and bye to everyone he sees. He still doesn't verbally say thankyou...signing it instead. He still loves everything boylike: tractors, trucks, fire engines, etc. He is really into wooden puzzles and is quite good at them. He is a master at mess making!! I guess this should be expected. He likes to help us out in the yard and dig in the dirt and "pull weeds". He enjoys feeding the ducks at Cochrane Park, walking and birdwatching at the Nisqually Delta and visiting his family members (and knows them by name).

Well, I hope to have some pictures soon! So, stay tuned!

Last day of detox

Yay! Today is the last day of my 7 day detox program! Its not like it has been bad or anything, but it is crazy how screwed up my brain has been. The past couple days I have been a little less foggy at least. I just noticed that I added my sister-in-law's blog to my friends and family list....however, instead of writing Sheila, Gracie and Lilly....I wrote Sheila, Grayson and Lilly. I guess that could be an honest mistake, but what a dork! I sometimes wonder if I should even be driving too....I ended up with a speeding ticket the other day. Just as I was driving down Capital Blvd. to downtown Oly I thought to myself "ooh, I think I'm going too fast"....not a split second later I'm getting pulled over. I was going 38 in a 25. Stupid!! Despite all my brain blunders I slept awesome last night and I'm feeling pretty good (minus this headache). My detox program is done just in time for our busy, busy day tomorrow----with 3 parties: Kentucky Derby party, a retirement party and a 30th birthday party in Seattle. Now that my liver is all cleansed, lets go and screw it up again! :) I've been told that following detox you become a serious lightweight...so, this will be interesting. Maybe I will be passed out at the first party after one drink. Should be fun! As long as my horse wins...I'm good!

A little update...

So, I've been sort of bad about blogging (especially with pictures) lately. Since the weather has been off and on, I haven't really gotten any pictures. So...I will just do a quick little update on what we've been up to.

*Heath and Grayson spent a couple days together this past weekend while I did some presentations for my business and while I worked my one day of the month at the vet clinic.

*Grayson and I went to downtown Olympia for Arts Walk on Saturday evening. We hung out with friends and ate yummy pizza; walked around (a lot) and checked out the music and art exhibits. It was quite a zoo down there....seemed like a lot of the people were 1/2 my age! We finally had some great weather this day....and didn't have to put on a sweater till it was getting dark.

*Sunday: Grayson and I went for a walk at the Nisqually Delta. Well, I walked...while Grayson rode on my back in the pack. Whew....he gets awfully heavy...but its a good workout. Even though it was a bit cloudy, it was still in the mid to high 60's and we did have some sun. We saw many birds and ducks, an otter, turtle, frogs, mergansers, geese and bugs. Grayson was so cute and waved at everyone who walked by. He wanted to hold my hand until he saw someone coming....then would start waving at them the moment he saw them. This cracked me up and it was so cute because it put a smile on everyone's face. Heath went on a bike ride with Greg while we were at the delta....preparing for the triathlon in June.

*Sunday evening: Heath took Grayson down to the lake to see the Hydroplane races and to check out the boats. Heath said he kept saying "skedt", "skedt".....which he finally realized meant "scared". He was trembling a little and saying this because the boats were really loud. Heath explained why these boats are loud and that it was ok, etc. He got used to it after a little bit and really enjoyed watching them race around, with water squirting up in the sky. He was still talking about all that today and kept saying his version of scared. Cute.

*I started a 7-day detox body cleanse (new Arbonne product) on Saturday. I must be pretty toxic or something because the past 2 days I've been pretty tired and a little spacey. This is just a cleanse that you drink throughout the day and basically eat normal (healthy, no alcohol, etc). I've been a little headachy and felt a little funky yesterday, but overall hasn't been too bad. Heath started his a couple days before me and hasn't really noticed much discomfort at all.

*Heath has been working on our deck again (along with my cousin, Tony) putting up the deck cover. I think the majority of it is done...we just need the actual covering now. It will be really exciting to be able to use our deck all the time regardless of the weather...and to get to use our outdoor heater. As I write this...it is completely downpouring. Hmmm....I thought today was actually turning out to be nice. Maybe it will rain really hard then be done. Heath has also done some stuff with our yard....moving some plants/shrubs and several other tasks. It is amazing how good our deck looks just with the addition of a few plants around it.

*I finally set up our composter after several years of wanting (and feeling guilty) to do so. I can't believe we didn't have this a long time ago especially because I am such an obsessive recycler! I feel really good about not throwing all those produce and food scraps, paper towels in the trash.

Well, that just about sums it up. I will hopefully have some pictures soon!

Fun times....

So, I had an interesting morning. I opened the blinds in our room and noticed that there was a "dead" possum in our yard. I use quotes because this is what he/she appeared to be. I then noticed Corbin's wet fur and knew that he had been rolling all over this possum and was sure to stink really bad. I figured I needed to "take care" of the situation, suck it up and go bag up this "dead" possum before the garbage man picked up our trash. I go out there, bag in hand....really not wanting to do this, but knowing it has to be done. Unfortunately, I've had to deal with plenty of deceased animals in my day....surely I could manage a dead possum. When I got closer I saw that his/her side was moving.....Oh S***! (Sorry, I had a few other choice words to go along with that, but I will spare you my trucker language). So, now I'm not sure what to do. I'm not one to kill anything....I freak out if I run over a frog in the spring time. However, I didn't want it to suffer either. I decided I needed to take it into the clinic to get some blue juice administered. Ok...not exactly what I had planned for our morning, but off I went to get changed...all the while I kept checking on this lovely marsupial making sure that the dogs didn't mess with it. Well, it actually got up and tried to walk, but couldn't because of its injuries....I could see it shaking also. Ok....not as dead as I thought it was!

So, I get Grayson in the car and go prepare for possum capturing....with my leather gloves, plastic bin with towel and shovel (for scooping, not bonking). Ok....its gone! Then I noticed it had made it another part of the yard....most likely compliments of the dogs (since they were coming from that direction). I decided the shovel was going to be my best bet since he/she started moving more when I touched it....these guys have some pretty serious teeth too! Once I got it in the bin I brought it through the house to go to the car. Ahhh...it started moving more...but I did make it outside onto the front porch. I said a couple choice words, sprinted to the garage to grab the lid. Phew! While we drove to the clinic I noticed that it was standing up somewhat and looking around.

We arrive at the clinic....everyone is so pumped that I brought them a possum! They got it sedated and waited several minutes before getting it out of the bin. When the time had come, Brenda grabbed it and set it on the table, moved it to its side then yelled "its got babies!" Oh no!! There we were all freaking out because there were all these babies moving around in her pouch. Now I felt really bad. Can you imagine if I hadn't noticed the momma possum until later....there might have been all sorts of baby possums strewn about my yard. Yikes! So, they pulled them out and placed them into a box----counting 8 total. Holy cow! A few of the girls all said that they would divide them up and raise them. Remember people...this is a vet hospital....we save everything! The babies are really darn cute though. Oh, and momma was in pretty bad shape, so she had to be put down.

Anyway, despite my lack of coffee until post-adventure....I ran on enough adrenaline to get me through the morning. I will have to get some pictures of these lovely little creatures and keep a possum diary. Ok, maybe not....but I probably will a little.

My brother's website

I keep forgetting to add Justin's glass website...but here it is. I will also keep it in my family and friends links. It isn't totally finished and he needs to update it, but it will give you an idea of the stuff he does. However, most of the stuff he does now is way bigger. He is currently in Maui working at the Maui Glass Blowing Factory. He is loving everything about it there....he has a house in the jungle that has lemon trees, avocado trees, orange trees, and many other fruit trees. He really wants me to come visit soon....which I would love as well. Dad is there now and is telling me that he is going to stay another 2 weeks (he is kidding though).

http://www.justinwbrown.com