Reading time!

I really enjoy having time to spend with my church friends! We all got together for book group this week, even though some of us didn't read the book! I used it as an excuse to get together with my friends and eat yummy food! The kids really enjoy the cookies as you can tell from these pictures! I plan on reading the book for next month! It was really fun setting all of the kids around the table to eat while we all sat in the living room talking. So much fun!

Families

I enjoy taking advantage of having my family close while I can! We have been to Indy 3 times in the past week! One of the times was to visit with my mom's best friend that I was named after (Mel and Jay). We adopted them as second parents as they loved to spoil us and goof off! They live in Florida, so we love to come up with excuses to go visit them! We got to enjoy lunch together and then spent some time chatting. It was lots of fun!

While we were all chatting, we decided to take some family pictures.

Here is me, my little sister Crystal and my mom.

Here is the whole family minus the in-laws. So far only boy grandkids! Hopefully we'll have a girl next time!

This is Dylan's proud grandpa! He loves spending time with the boys!
It was great visiting with everyone and I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to do so!

I did it!

So I made it with only one blister and just over 2 1/2 hours! It was really fun and exciting. I had a great time training and even lost a few pounds! The weather was a bit cool in the morning, but turned out to be fantastic! We couldn't have asked for a better day! Here are the official results:

Overall place: 1497 Pace: 11:34 Finish time: 2:31:40.7

Here we are just before we started the race. Katrina on the left ran it in 2 hours 13 mins., me, and Bobette ran it in 2 hours 1 min. I was very impressed with both of them! For being my first marathon, I think I did pretty good!

I got these pictures of my friend Katrina's blog. (Thanks!) We ran together for about the first 5 miles. I had to stop for a second to get a drink and she kept going. It was very nice to have someone to run with!

This is right before the finish. I ran the last 4 miles with the woman in front of me. We pushed each other to run! Katrina had already finished, but she joined me in the last part. It was very nice of her! Thanks!

After we finished, Dylan and Chandler were playing in the grass. They were being their cute selves! Ricky got Dylan to cheer for me! It was really cute!

And here's Dylan again! He was being such a cutie!

I don't know how many more half marathons I want to do, but I definitely would like to continue running. I had forgotten how much I enjoy it! Next time, I think I will do a shorter run! Thanks again to everyone who gave me support! I really appreciate it!

The day before

Wish me luck! Tomorrow is the big day! I still can't believe that I am going to run a half marathon (13.1 miles)! I am getting excited because I have trained really hard for this! In some ways, I am looking forward to it being over. But overall, I am really excited! It brings back all the memories of running cross country in High School! Thanks to Katrina for asking me to join her, and thanks to Bobette for helping me train! I am hoping to get the race done it two and a half hours, but we'll see! It's my first one! I guess that's all for now! I'll have Ricky take some pictures for me show everyone that I did it!

Fun times!

This weekend we got to attend the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, Ricky's favorite. It is one of our traditions to go and eat all of the yummy food! Even if you have to stand in line for 30 mins for the best ever apple dumpling. It was definitely worth it. The weather was amazing, not too hot or cold! I was very bummed that I forgot my camera! I had a long morning, training for the marathon. (Which is coming up this Saturday!) After the Feast, we went to our friend's donut party/ Halloween party. I was excited to dress Dylan up in his cute giraffe costume. The games were fun and the donuts were very good! I probably ate about a thousand calories on Saturday! Good thing for the long run! We were all dead by the end of the day!

I got a few pictures of Dylan lounging around. I found him like this the other day while I was cooking dinner! He is such a cheese ball!

On a side note, we are currently looking for another car. We are not sure what we want or what would be the most logical car to get. We were thinking about a small suv that gets somewhat good gas mileage, since we don't need a van yet! Suggestions would be greatly appriciated!

Computer time

I guess I should post something about our lives! I haven't been in the mood to get on the computer lately! I don't know why, I just haven't! It could be that I am ready for this marathon to be over so that I can stop running everyday! It is wearing me out! It doesn't help that I strained a tendon in my foot! One and a half weeks to go! I checked my e-mail yesterday and I had 49 new messages! Crazy!

I got my camera back, so here the pictures I promised you!

Dylan cried every time we took him out to let the other kids have a ride! I guess grandmas know what to get Dylan for Christmas!! j/k

How many kids can you fit into a power wheels mustang?

And here is my cutest little nephew, Landen! He just turned one!