To Run 26.2 or Not to Run 26.2...

That is my question!!!! Here is me at my 1st full marathon (Little Rock, 2005...so hilly it's ridiculous):

I'll never forget this experience. I remember the course like it was yesterday. The first 13 miles were ok...then the hills began...miles 13 through 19 were crazy hill after crazy hill. At that point, my butt felt like it was 100 lbs just weighing me down. The last 6-7 miles were just hell yet, I loved it all at the same time. I actually cried as I crossed the finish line. It was so amazing seeing my family cheering me on at the final stretch...they even had signs (my sister's friend, me, my sister Ashley):
I want to experience that feeling again! I am currently training for a 10 mile race on April 15th. My training is going well, injury free...I'm really being smart about it. This has been the most dedicated I've been with working out in a long time. I'm running 3 days a week and doing strengthening/cross training 2-3 days per week.
Columbus has a marathon in October that I am interested in running. Columbus is a fun and interesting city to see and experience and the marathon course would take me all over the city. The best part is that I would get to run through "The Shoe!" The only thing holding me back is the commitment and dedication to training. I'm not 100% confident that I can do it again. I mean, I'll be dirty 30 at that point! The only thing I can do is keep praying over it...weigh out the positives and negatives. If you have any opinions, let me know!

Violet

PLEASE check out this dog! Jimmy and I love this dog but can't adopt her because we have 2 already! She is so sweet and has been at the shelter a long time. I found out today that a family adopted her a couple of weeks ago and gave her back... because she barked at their cat (isn't that what dogs do?!). Jimmy and I are willing to pay adoption fees if anyone can give her a loving home and lots of attention :)

http://www.adoptapet.com/pet6842214.html

My opinion about opinions...

KEEP IT TO YOURSELF UNLESS I ASK FOR IT!!!!

My little Angel is so precious to me. Jimmy and I rescued her from the shelter almost a year ago. She has been a great addition to our family. She is an awesome pet and loves playing with her sister, Izzie. Tonight at agility class, this B-word lady came up to me and asked me what kind of food I feed Angel. I was a little confused at first but answered her question anyway. She basically said that my dog has ugly wiry hair (she didn't use the word ugly but she might as well have) and that I need to make sure she doesn't have corn in her diet because that might be the cause of her hair problems.

This situation=Lisa is super pissed right now cuz you just dissed my dog and I didn't ask for your opinion.

This lady doesn't know me, I don't know her, she didn't even introduce herself to me....I was so annoyed by this. I am praising Jesus that I didn't say a word to her because, as we know, I'm a firecracker. There were so many things running through my head. I later found out that this lady is some animal behavioralist. Maybe she's been focusing too much on the behvior of animals and not enough on her own behavior. If she had at least introduced herself to me, told me who she is, maybe I would have been more receptive to her opinion. The B-word hurt my feelings fo sho...I don't like her, and I'm ok with that for now. It feels so good to vent...

Up All Night...

I shared with my community group on Thursday night that I feel tired and overworked...I wouldn't say that if I didn't feel that way! I'm the type of person that likes to keep myself busy. If I don't have some purpose, something to do, then I will go crazy.

Izzie has been ill the last 5 days. Each day, I have come home to a crate full of diarrhea and a dog covered in diarrhea. I would spend almost an hour as soon as I got home cleaning it all up, giving Izzie a bath, etc. If I did absolutely nothing at work all day, it might be ok to have to do all of that...but I have a physical job and I'm tired when I get off!

I feel so bad for my little girl. She is acting normal but pooping every hour or two. Jimmy and I didn't sleep well last night because we'd wake up every couple of hours to clean a poopy mess off the floor. Final thought: if this is any indication of what it might be like to have a baby, I'M NOT READY!!! Please be praying for my Izzie girl and for my sanity (and my husband's sanity)...

Jamaica...Days 5-7

Because our camera broke, I have no more pics from the rest of the trip :( I'll just put some random ones in this post. The rest of the trip was equally as amazing as the first part of it...good food, parties every night. There was a chocolate buffet one night (wish I had a pic), lots of reggae music, and I got a massage on our last day. This trip was so amazing and I can't wait to repeat it! We're hoping to go to St. Lucia in 2013 with other couples :)

Jamaica...Day 4

Hanging out at one of the beaches:

Hanging out at one of the pools:

I think Jimmy and I would agree that Day 4 was the highlight of our trip. This was the day we went on the catamaran cruise to Dunn's River Falls. The boat was amazing, the ride so peaceful. We stopped a few minutes into the trip to go snorkeling. I wasn't as panicked this time as I was on our honeymoon. Being in the open water freaks me out a bit! After snorkeling, we headed towards the falls. It was the coolest thing ever. The water was freezing but it was worth it to be able to climb the falls. Our camera stopped functioning right before the falls so we didn't get any pictures of it but we bought a DVD to remember it. After returning to the boat, they opened the alcohol and the party started! We had a sweet ride back full of fun and dancing!
Later that night, we ate at what ended up being our favorite restaurant, Valentino's...it's Italian.

If you ever go to Jamaica, you MUST go to Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios!!!

My New Year = Taking Action

I wasn't going to make a New Year's Resolution because I just don't get into that whole thing but Pastor Rich inspired me to think of one. Some of you know that Jimmy has been working on getting his Masters in Accounting and moving to the "next level" in his career. He has been applying for different jobs for at least a year and has had no luck getting interviews for accounting jobs. About 3 or 4 months ago, he decided to start applying for sales positions at his current company which means we would have to move. He has received a lot of positive comments about his work performance and his boss said he had a really good chance of getting one of the sales positions. So far, Jimmy has had two interviews for one specific position.

As this process has gone on, I've become lazy. I've been living in the future of what might happen if he did get one of these jobs. I've been going crazy looking up real estate in these cities, etc. I've stopped doing anything with our new home just in case we move in the future. I've been rediculous about the whole thing. Therefore, my resolution is to LIVE IN THE PRESENT and not in the future of what may or may not happen. This inspired me to do a couple of projects today.

First, I took two of our wedding pics and bought frames for them:

I then bought a shelf and this is the result (above our bed):


I stole this next project idea from Pinterest. A great way to organize your scarves with shower hooks and a hanger!



During this process, I found out I have way too many scarves! But I love them so much!!!