Willie make it?…..Betty won’t

I am sure doubtful most of you remember that last year I had to run a few miles the day before New Years in order to accomplish my goal of 1,000 miles for the year. If I remember correctly, I was even sick as I fought through that last run of the year. This year, I didn’t really set a goal for mileage. Recently, I have noticed that I am getting close to the 1,000 mile mark once again. However, after tonight’s run of 5.5 miles I am now at 971.5 miles for the year. Which means I have roughly a week to run 28.5 miles. Not impossible, but this year I have been doing the FIRST training program which is more intense workouts and less mileage. Therefore, it is doubtful I will reach the 1,000 mile mark. Normally, this would bother me that I am this close, but it really doesn’t. I guess that’s the advantage of not setting goals. By the way, Lisa does not support the last sentence in any way as she is far more goal-oriented than I.

Cross-Country

I figured since it has been almost a month since our last blog post that I should write something. Since this is a “running” blog (I use the term loosely) I guess I will update you on our latest run.

Last Saturday morning, Lisa and I and some of our friends ran a cross-country 5-K in Pensacola. Neither one of us had ever run a cross-country course since neither of us ran in high school. It was definitely different than running a road race. Basically, the entire race was run in trails in the woods. Tight turns, meeting and passing other runners on narrow trails, jumping  over downed trees, and running on uneven ground made it very interesting. Our finish times were slower than normal but we both had a really good time especially running with other people we knew…we had never done that.

Jason pulls another fast one!!!

 

On November 1, 2008 Jason had a great accomplishment.  He broke his best PR (personal record) for a 10K race by nearly 3 minutes!  This is quite a bit for a 6.2 mile race.  He has been training very hard this fall and it paid off!  This race in down town Mobile is one of our favorite local races.  It’s such a great race course with all of the live oaks and old Southern mansions and schools not to mention the almost always great weather! I didn’t race this time,much to my disappointment, because I had a pretty bad cold and I still had a nasty cough so I took Victor to keep me from doubting my better judgement and running anyway.

 

Jason is in the red shirt.  This is a few blocks from the finish line.

His actual finish time was 46:41!

Here he is chilling with Victor after the race.

Here is our happy dog on the way home!

You can see the entire results for the 2008 Senior Bowl Charity Run here

A weekend getaway…at a bargin price

Last weekend Jason and I went on a little weekend vacation to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL and stayed in the most beautiful cottage!   We had originally thought that a few of our friends from our small group would be able to go with us so we reserved a 3 bedroom, 3 bath cottage. The cottages have recently been remodeled and so now they are really, really nice.  We found out at the last minute that it didn’t suit any of our friends to go after all, so we downgraded to a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cabin for about half the price.  The cabins appeared to be nice, but much older and more rustic.  We got there late because we didn’t leave as early as we originally planned since Mom and Dad had come down to our house to help us do yard work that day.  When we got there around 7pm and got our key, we realized that we had the key to a cottage instead of a cabin.  They lady who gave us a key basically said that they couldn’t do anything about it that evening so we stayed in the nice cottage and hoped that we wouldn’t get charged for it.  The next day when the office lady who had made our reservation was back in the office, she said that it was her mistake and so we got to stay in the nice cottage for the cabin price!  We saved basically 50%!!  Here is the picture tour of the weekend.

 

The back view of the cottages (I’m standing on the pier)

 

The front view

The side view

The fully equipped kitchen

Dinning area

The living room

This bedroom had a private screened-in porch

All of the bathrooms had these great sink units

We thought it would be fun to ride our bikes from Gulf Shores to Ft. Morgan and ride the Ferry to Dauphin Island and get lunch and ride back.  We didn’t get as early of a start as we would have liked because of some heavy fog, so we had to bike very hard to make sure we didn’t miss the Ferry.  We made it with a few minutes to spare!

Lisa on the Ferry

Jason on the Ferry

The Estuarium on Dauphin Island

A fishing boat

We biked 2 miles into town and ate lunch at the Crusty Crab.  It was very quaint and quiet.

My very handsome biker dude! All total we biked 50 miles on Saturday.

Jake and Lynette and their family came down to stay with us on Saturday night.

Ava was fabulous and happy the whole time they were at the Park with us.  Here she is dancing with Lynette.  We had a really nice time with them.

We highly recomend Gulf State Park’s cottages to anyone who wants a quiet getaway at a great price!

The closet floor never looked so good . . .

One of my main goals for my month of blissful time off work was the not so blissful task of cleaning the closets in our spare bedrooms.  Yuk! I hate cleaning closets.  But when my mind is made up to clean house . . . no earthly possession is safe!!  Earlier this year I wrote a post about FlyLady.  I love the method she uses to decide what to keep when she is cleaning things.  She looks at her stuff with one question in mind, “Does this item bless my life or my family’s life?”  If the answer is “yes” she keeps it–if it is “no” she tosses it.  This simple question has helped me evaluate all of our earthly possessions and has freed me to get rid of many things with happiness and joy in my heart! I know that my family thinks that my house is always neat and orderly . . . and it is.  It usually looks perfect . . . just don’t open the closets!  I just wish I would have taken a “before” picture to convince the doubters reading this post that I’m not exaggerating! 

In my quest to clean out some things I opened two large boxes of Princess House Crystal and evaluated each piece with the aforementioned question.  Here is my stash that didn’t make the cut.

 

The good news for you, dear readers, is that I’m willing to pass the beautiful items on to you at a screaming good deal!  See the end of this post for more details. . .

Here is my pile of Garage Sale stuff all priced and ready for the Grace Garage Sale next weekend. . .

Here is the beautiful closet floor.  I wish that I could get everything off of the floor, but at least our guests have somewhere to hang their clothes . . .

This is the biggest improvement of all!  This closet was piled high up to the clothes bar and none of the floor was visible.  Now, as you can see, I have cleaned out enough junk to store my newest prized possession safely out of harm’s way. All in all, I got rid of two large moving boxes and three large totes full of things!!!! The closet carpet has never looked so good!

Now for the scoop on the Princess House reduction sale.  I have posted pages of old Princess House catalogs with the items I wish to get rid of clearly marked with an asterisk.  If there is any damage to the items or quantity differences I have marked them by the items.  If you are interested in any of these items email me or leave a comment stating the item or items that you want and the price you would like to pay for them.  If you are not comfortable making an offer just email me and I’ll quote you a price.  We are driving to Illinois at Christmas and we should have some extra room . . . 

These pages are in pdf format.  Just click on them and your computer should automatically open them for you.  If you have trouble viewing them let me know.

princess-house-pg-1

princess-house-pg-2

princess-house-pg-3

princess-house-pg-4

princess-house-pg-5

princess-house-pg-6

princess-house-pg-7

princess-house-pg-8

princess-house-pg-9

princess-house-pg-10

princess-house-pg-11

princess-house-pg-12

Celebrating life, health and fast bikes . . .

I am pleased to announce that I am finally feeling a little more like myself again after the stress and sickness of the last several weeks!  Today, after a leisurely day at home, I biked down to the gym on my new bike and intended to run and swim a little.  I had a short power nap before I went down to the gym and was finally feeling like I could actually push myself again.  I ran 6 miles with each mile getting about 20 seconds/mile faster.  The pool was too full so I wasn’t able to swim after all.  I biked home and put supper in the oven and got ready to ride again. Jason had told me this morning that he wanted to go on a quick bike ride after work before it got dark.  We biked a hard and quick 13 miles (where he still kicked my butt on the hills, even with my new bike).  Needless to say, our legs felt like the spaghetti squash we had baking in the oven for supper!  But, all in all, I feel great!  Absolutely nothing hurt while I was running and I didn’t even cough up a lung for once! Hopefully, I have kicked sickness, tiredness, and stress out of my life for now. I feel like . . . well . . .me!

I realized that I didn’t post a picture of my new bike.

  It is a 2001 Quintana Roo Tequilo. (This company only makes triathlon bikes). 

I got a great deal on it from Craig’s List for a fraction of it’s original price.  It had less than 50 miles on it when I bought it.  It is wonderfully light and fast weighing only around 19lbs.  I’m not too much faster on average on it yet than I was on my Motobecane Hybrid bike that I’ve been using the last year.  However, I am still working on some balance issues with the different riding stance that should get better with more practice.  I also use a little different parts of muscles when I ride in such a aerodynamic position that still need a little strengthening.

You can read the full-specs-on-lisas-bike if you are interested.

Lisa – The Triathlete

Last Saturday, October 4th, Lisa accomplished something that no one else I know has done…finished a triathlon. It was a “Sprint Triathlon” which meant it was 1/3 mile swim, 18 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run to finish it off. The triathlon was held at Pensacola Beach and it was an absolutely beautiful day for one. The only other time she did an “open” water swim the water was really rough, but on this day it was as calm as I have ever seen it. Lisa had been sick leading up the race and she still had a nasty cough the day of the race…but if you know Lisa you know that she wouldn’t let a cough keep her from meeting her goals. The swim was her hardest event. 1/3 of a mile does not really sound like it would be hard to swim. However, seeing how far they had to swim; there is no way I could have swam that far. I was getting worried about her though as I was waiting where the athletes were getting out of the water. She left with the “yellow” swim cap swimmers and all of a sudden I noticed there were only a couple of yellow caps left in the water. But eventually she emerged from the water much to my relief. She said her coughing definitely made it hard for her to breathe while she was swimming, so she would lay on her back and float for a while to catch her breath. The other two events she made up some time on and did well. She wasn’t thrilled with her overall time but considering it was her first time and she was sick, I think finishing is quite an accomplishment.

Water before the race

Lisa before the Race

Lisa’s group running into the water to start the race

Lisa getting out of the water

Finishing the 18 mile bike ride

Running out of the “transition” area

Finishing the running

Lisa and her fan club minus me

Changes

The last month has brought about a lot of changes.  I don’t know if anyone has missed my blog posts lately or noticed that Jason has made the last several entries.  There is a good reason for that.  Six weeks ago Jason and I started taking a Grace Campus class were we were to spend several weeks going through the book “Strength Finders” and take a test to find out our strengths, the next several weeks were spent discovering our Spiritual Gifts, and the next several weeks were spent taking the Meyers-Brigs personality test.  All of this was to help us discover more about ourselves and hopefully learn how to be the best possible versions of ourselves.  This class, especially the Strength Finders section, has made me look at life a little differently.   The test showed me some key things about my current job that clearly were not allowing me to use my strengths to fulfill my full potential.  I think that God was using that class to give me a new perspective and prepare me to hear His voice.  I felt that God was telling me that now is the time to hand in my resignation and to trust Him.  This stressed me out considerably since one of my strengths is “responsibility” and quitting my perfectly good and safe job with comfortable benefits didn’t seem very “responsible”.  But I obeyed what I felt like God was asking me to do and today I am unemployed.  My company decided to close the Mobile location so my office closed its doors completely on October 3, 2008.  I’m not sure where I will be next, but I’m trusting God to lead Jason and I to what He has for us.  For now, I’m enjoying a little time off and the peace that comes from doing what God asks . . . even when it’s tough.

 

Incidentally our Strengths are:

Jason

Deliberative

Harmony

Empathy

Discipline

Responsibility

 

Lisa

Responsibility

Focus

Restorative

Discipline

Activator

 

Our Meyers-Brigs personality test showed:

Jason

ISFJ

Lisa

ESTJ

Taking one for the team!

We just started playing “Grace” co-ed softball last week. Yesterday, marked the second game of the season for us. The games are supposed to be mainly “for fun” and to build friendships outside of the church walls. Well, things got a little heated between myself and another player after the game and here is how I ended up looking…but you should have seen the other guy.

 

 

  

 Actually, what really happened is I was playing Left field, the batter hit a short fly ball that was also slicing down the left field line. I thought I had a pretty good shot at catching it so I started running in at full speed to track it down. Meanwhile, instead of just running “in” I was also running toward the left field sideline fence…the rest of the story is I dove and the ball was in my glove. For a brief nano second I thought I was a hero…only to find out that there was a chain link fence waiting for me. Sadly enough, I later found out that it was the third foul for the batter and therefore he would have been out regardless of my heroic efforts. However, I still feel pretty hardcore about it . Here is one last picture of a burn on my shoulder:

PR in Amish Country

Last weekend (Labor Day Weekend), Lisa and I traveled to my hometown of Arthur, IL to spend time with my family. Every Labor Day Weekend, Arthur is home to the Cheese Festival. My family knows Lisa and I love to run in races and told us there would be a “Rat Race 5K” run on Monday morning…Fitting for a cheese festival.

 

 We didn’t decide really until Monday morning that we would run since Lisa was sick on Sunday night and we had run Sunday morning as well. 5K’s have been one of the more challenging runs for me even though you would think the short distance would make them easy. My problem has been – start off too slow, not enough miles in the race to make up for the slow start. Start off too fast, practically die at the end. So in order to overcome these obstacles I cheated eavesdropped. I overheard a guy behind me telling someone his best time was around 22 minutes and he was hoping to do at least that. My best before Monday was around 23:25. The race started and I drafted this guy for the first mile. My first split was 7:00 mile, right on pace for a PR. Between mile 1 and 2 my “pacer” started to slow down so I passed him and started my own pace. My mile 2 split 7:10, slowed a little but still on pace. The last 1.1 miles I started to fade a little but was able to run “fast” enough to finish in 22:18…I think. I still haven’t seen the official results but I think that was what was on the clock when I crossed the finish line. My reward…a block of cheese and gatorade.