Since we’ve owned Tyler in 2005 I always kind of wanted a smaller dog… but Jason wasn’t usually too fond of the smaller breeds… in about 2009 or so Jason has agreed that a Jack Russell Terrier breed would be a good choice, and I really really wanted a JRT. My friend had one as well, so I knew about their personalities, and I had done lots of research. Well I finally found a breeder that didn’t cost an arm and a leg… so the Wednesday after Kirra’s birthday (11/16) Lisa, Kirra and I headed up to Clearwater, MN to get …..Sadie….. She is 9 weeks old, 5 pounds, and a little ball of energy when she is not cuddling and napping.

I’m still really feeling under the weather, and to be frank I’m SICK of it. Not that being sick is ever fun, but this is one helluva cold, and it’s kicking me hard. I want to just perpetually stay in bed, and have IV fluids give me all the replenishment I need, so I can sleep and not worry about needing to drink water. Once we got home Kirra and I were playing barbies, and she was playing Cinderella (which Sara got her at the MOA), and she showed Ken her underwear, and said, “Ken… don’t you like my underwear?” Ken [me]: CInderella, that is inappropriate. You should never show kens your unders. Cinderella: But they’re so pretty look at them. (puts barbies butt in kens face) Ken: Cinderella, that is naughty. Cinderella: Show me your underwear, I showed you mine. ** Play is formally interrupted. “Kirra. inappropriate” We haven’t played undie barbie since… I’m a bit worried about her sometimes :-). I’ve now been playing barbies with her for over an hour… which is a miracle,and a new record for me. I don’t know how I have lasted this long! It’s like a marathon!

Well I haven’t posed for a while, or what seems to be a while! We’re in the sick house…all three of us. Last weekend Kirra came down with Croup and a gamete of other ailments, and still has a lingering cough. As a present for taking care of her all last week, daddy and I now have said virus. Sniffly, drippy, stuffy nose, coughing etc. I’m hoping we’re going to be fully or semi recovered by tomorrow since we’re trick or treating. We’ve invited Pam & Phil, and Frank & Theo to join us so they can see Kirra dressed up, and also because they never really get too many trick or treaters out where they live. Kirra’s going as Dorothy tomorrow, which she’s wanted to be since last year. Last night Jason, Kirra and I carved our pumpkins. Kirra did not particularly like cleaning her pumpkin and thought it was -gross-. She wanted a kitty cat,I made a haunted house,and Jason did an eye ball. I’m debating between taking a nap and running down to the camera store and buying a new bag. I need to get one before this wedding we’re going to next week because my stuff barely fits in mine anymore. Decisions Decisions….

We had a very simple weekend here! Friday Jason had to work semi late so K and I just hung out and watched some Curious George and Super Y while we waited for daddy to come home. I had the itch to go out…so I ended up going up to the local bowling ally where they also have free Texas hold em. This is where Jason normal goes. It was fun and the drinks were really cheap! I ended up loosing within an hour and half so I went home and went to bed. Saturday Jason had to work again, so I brought Kirra to dance class and then we came home and did a home makeover…aka cleaned the house and took a nap before our evening outing. Lisa, Miah, Amillie, Jason, and I went to the Pinehaven Dead End Trail! It was super fun despite the hour long line, and we all got scared or jumped at one point. Today I brought Kirra to church with me and I served in the walkers room! Then I was off for Hudson Wisconsin for my cousins wedding shower. It was great to see everyone,and see what the newlyweds were getting! I did a quick photoshoot for my cousin Jen and her 60s something classic mustang! It had been her dads,and he had gotten it all ratty tatty,and had always wanted to fix it up. So after he passed away Jen took over and finished the job for her dad. I think she did an amazing job, and I know Terr Bear is smiling down from heaven at all the work that she’s done! I ended up taking the scenic route home to take more photos of the autumn scenery except I was kind of unmotivated, and the fall colors seemed to vanish. Everything is just brown now… ugly and brown. I did think of a new photo project I’m going to embark on and that is photographing churches. I think churches come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, brand new with deco designs, and very old and vintage, with olde time architecture! It’s all so fascinating to me,and I think it would make for a neat assignment. Once home Kirra was still napping, so I napped too. Jason made us homemade pizza for dinner, and then Kirra and I finished off the night by playing Doctor. She brought her baby over to me and told me her baby’s neck hurt. When I (playing the doctor) asked what happened, she said they were just on a school bus, and a pack of skunks hopped on the bus and attacked them and sprayed them. She has been super fascinated with skunks now for several weeks! I thought it was so funny…. We read books,and hopped into bed. I’m pushing cinderella behavior right now so I best finish posting, and get in bed myself!

This past weekend was the 30th running of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, and it was a GORGEOUS weekend for racing! The weekend started out on Thursday when the TCM office deployed to the RiverCentre in St. Paul. I always feel a touch of nostalgia and think of my military deployments when going in full operations mode for “marathon weekend”. My mom was kind enough to donate 8 hours of her day and help me in the Temp Office by answering phones for me while I tended to administrative support and emails from participants, vendors and sponsors. At 8pm, Thursday was a wrap and time to pick up food for staff at the Liffey. My dad gave me a ride and I got to see Kirra who wasn’t to pleased to watch me leave her again when I had to go back to my hotel room for my all staff meeting/venting session. I got curried chicken which was delicious as always and headed to bed with my roommate Andrea. Our room once again was SO HOT! This happened to me back in 2009 as well, as you can see by clicking on the words SO HOT! We turned our thermostat down to 60 and turned the fan on. It seemed slightly better, so we went to bed. We woke up on Friday not feeling much relief, but it was time to head to Expo Day #1 (Friday). Friday I had Pam helping me in the morning. She quickly learned the rules of the road (racing), and was able to answer questions quickly and efficiently! She was a total jewel to have in the office! Later that day Cindy came in to help me once again. Bless her! She is always so on top of things,and luckily has done this before so knows most answers to questions. She also gave me a ride to get dinner and bring me back to the hotel! Which was good since Cossettas put our food in 14 huge bags, and was a bit tough to carry! I had Chicken Marsala for dinner and some pasta on the side. When I got back to our room, I was still SO HOT! So I called down to the front desk at 11:30 and had the night engerier unlock our window slits, and bring us a fan.{He explained to us that he winterizes the hotel and shuts off the air conditioning, which would explain that even when I turn the air way down its not doing anything but re-circulating the air that’s already in the room!} Within 5 seconds it was total relief! 20 Minutes later I’m quite convinced I had slight food poisoning. Probably because the person taking my order at Cossetas wasn’t too excited about taking a 14 person order when there was a Wild Game, and hungry marathoners in town! I didn’t actually get sick, but if I hadn’t fallen asleep so quickly I might have… Waking up on Saturday morning, feeling totally fine I headed over to Saturday Events with prize packs in tow. I stayed for the 10K and 5K and saw my friend Katherine run the 10K. It felt kind of strange knowing that Kirra was going to be skipping out on the Toddler Trot this year due to dance, but was also needed back at the Temp Office as well,since i’m sure my volunteer Melissa probably didn’t want to be stranded alone in the temp office winging answers on the fly. Expo Day #2 (Saturday) 2pm shift change, and our Telephone rep Paul came in to finish out the Temp Office night! He’s so great at customer service, so I basically also let him answer all the phone calls! (actually come to think of it, my volunteers DID take most of the calls), which would explain why the temp office seemed so much more relaxed this year! I was also a lot busier, so I truly thank God for the help! My co-worker Colleen and I headed over to the Lake Street Bridge once everything at the Expo was packed up, closed up, and shipped up. She helped me pick up food at Señor Wong’s and bring it back to the hotel. It was a combination Mexican/Thai/Asian restaurant which was ridiculously delicious! We finished up the night around 11:30 again, and headed straight for bed! I was then off for a lovely 26.2 mile gator ride to the finish of the marathon! {except my gator was not John Deere, and not that fancy} It started out crisp and cool. I had on a T-Shirt/Tech Shirt/Warm Flece Sweatshirt/lightweight jacket/heavier softshell jacket/wind jacket and of course a hat and gloves on. Ever so often layers just peeled off and off, and by the finish line I was down to my T-Shirt rounding out the day at around 70 degrees. I yelled out to over 300 intersections for course marshals to leave up their barricades as there were an additional 25 or so vehicles behind me… and around mile 23 or 24 I started yelling out to participants who weren’t injured or sick, but needed some motivation that they weren’t going to be a quitter, and they were going to dig deep and finish! And everyone who we really motivated did! As one EMS person put it that was on a gator next to me… its like seeing your baby go to Kindergarten when they cross that finish line. I was truly so excited for them, that when I finished I parked my gator and ran to the finish chute and gave them a huge hug! About 5:30 after helping to do a FOD walkdown {except… not exactly since we weren’t all standing in a line… none-the less you have to scour the grounds of the state capitol like an F-14 depends on it for trash instead of FOD..} on the capitol grounds I was finally headed home to see my baby and my husband! I now have no voice hardly. Its very scratchy and i’m sure in the next day or two it will be completely gone! Today we had breakfast as a staff and shared in jubilation our stories from the weekend. We then picked up the marathon course trash that was left over, and headed out. Tomorrow will be checking e-mails,sorting out lost and found, and putting our real office back together! Until next year, Marathon Weekend Re-Cap

Today was my race for Women Run the Cities 10 Mile. It went really fantastic actually! I was just hoping for 10 Minute mile pace,so I lined up with the 10 Minute milers pace group and ran into a few friends from Moms on the Run, and my co-worker. We were off and about a mile into the race I was feeling pretty good so I passed up the 10 m/m group, and thought I’ll just stay in front of them! We had to go down a gynormous hill and turn around and back up it again. I think because of my small stature I’m pretty good at going up hills, so I got into position, and just flew up the hills strongly! I passed probably 80 people (but who’s counting) and before I knew it I was ahead of the 9:30 pace group! I decided I must stay in front of them the rest of the way and NOT to let the balloon people (the pace leaders) pass me! I really had to dig deep. By Mile 8 I just so badly wanted to slow down the pace, or walk, or just quit, but I kept at it, and succeeded! I officially finished in 1:32:05 for a 9:13 m/m pace. Which I was THRILLED about since my previous fasted LDR (Long distance Running) pace had been 10:30 max! Simply amazed at the power of training. (Not really, but it was so cool passing people vs. being passed) I’m going to focus on 5Ks now and really get my time down as much as possible! I’m thinking I’ll be doing this particular race again next year!