Run To Register 10K

Well, we ran and lived to tell the story. We actually both ran good times. Travis came in at 55:05 mins and I came in at 55:11 mins. That's about 8:54/8:55 minutes a mile. When we run normally, we usually run about 10 min/mile pace - but that includes all our stops to look at woodpeckers, squirrels, deer and froggies on the trail.

Just in case you don't know (I wouldn't unless I asked), a 10K is 6.2 miles. This one is part of the Marine Corps Marathon. If you run in this race, you're guaranteed a spot in the marathon on Oct. 31. We are still thinking about the full marathon (26.2 miles), but we're signed up for the Historic Half (13.1 miles) in Fredericksburg on May 16.

This morning was really cold. It was 34 degrees when we left the house at 6:45ish. We were both really cold walking to the porta-potty lines, then to the start line, but it felt good once we started running. It was actually perfect temp. There were about 1798 people racing, so a lot of warm bodies! :) hee hee According to the race result sheets, Travis came in 869th overall, and 106 in his division. I came in 881 overall, and 36th in my division. Of course, the girl divisions are easier. :) Here's the link to the RESULTS. We had a really good time and are looking forward to the HH in May. We have to decide whether or not we're gonna do the Marathon by April 5, so I'll let you all know soon! :) Here are a couple of pics.

For those who look at my blog but don't see anything new

I was talking to my mom today and she was telling me I needed to update it because she comes to check on it and there IS NOTHING NEW. Hi mom. :)

Aaron is out visiting for a couple of weeks. Our futon/guest bed is set up in the front room which is connected to the room where the computer is, and since he's a teenager and they go to bed at like, 5 a.m., I don't get on the computer as much as normal so I don't wake him up. Once they're up, I have to keep them entertained, so I let them sleep.

Not much is new around here anyway. Now that dance is over, things are pretty mellow. I spend my days watching squirrels and birds, playing on the computer (when we don't have company), doing sudoku, shopping or going to lunch with Anisa, and sometimes with Renee and Ava, doing laundry and cleaning the house. Pretty boring. I haven't done much sewing lately because Sara took her desk back...I was using it in my sewing room as an extra storage and flat surface. Now, the room is messy and I don't like to go in there. I'm on a mission to find a good, cheap dresser or desk. I looked at Ikea, but they didn't have anything that thrilled me. I liked their dressers, but they were a couple hundred bucks and I'd have to buy new drawer bottoms cuz the bottoms in there are REALLY cheap and flimsy and I wouldn't want my fabric to fall out and get all messed up since it's nicely folded right now.

Tomorrow, Travis and I are heading down to Quantico Marine Corps base to run a 10k (it's part of the Marine Corps Marathon and if you do this 10K, you are guaranteed a spot in the marathon in the fall. We'll decide if we can do the full marathon after we do the Historic Half in May). It should be fun. We usually run about 6ish miles, so it's a normal distance for us, but we'll do it with thousands of other people. I have personal space issues, so I hope I don't freak out on anyone for getting in my "personal space". Actually, I'd probably only freak out on Travis because he's already been warned SEVERAL times. The base is about 45 minutes south of here, so we have to get up early if we want to have some coffee and a little power breakfast.

So, that's the news from here. Pretty boring, huh? I'll post pictures and stories from the race tomorrow. Until then, I hope you all are having a fun, boring (if you prefer) day. love and kisses to all! :)

Oh, I forgot to mention....

If you go to Varsity.com you can click on the "Great Themes from NDA Nationals" and the team is interviewed (they are right after the wedding theme team. Also, you can type in the Search bar "West Springfield" and it will pull up the routines. They cut a little bit of the routine - not sure why- but you can get an idea of how the kids performed. :)

NDA National Champions

I'm just now getting around to putting up some shots of the 2010 Medium Varsity Hip Hop National Champion team from WEST SPRINGFIELD HIGH SCHOOL! They went down as ordinary high school dancers and came back as National Champions! :)

The competition was held on Mar. 6 & 7 at the Hard Rock auditorium at Universal in Orlando, FL. The most surprising thing about the weekend was the cold weather. It was cold enough to wear a sweatshirt (but I DID wear shorts). We got down there on Thursday, got to the hotel, dropped our bags and everyone got something to eat and the kids went to practice.

Friday was more of the same. Some adults went to WDW, some of us went to Super Walmart to get food for the kids since they were spending $15 a meal and they were on a budget. We got fruit, water and stuff for PB&Js. They scarfed them down! We even had to get more bread. :) That afternoon, one of my high school friends who lives in Orlando, Tim, came to pick me up and we went to dinner (along with his darling wife and mom). That was super fun to see him and meet his family.

Saturday was prelims. The kids got ready, and we pulled our little white vans over and picked up all the wild haired kids with all their bags. Off we headed to Universal Studios to go to the Hard Rock Auditorium. We got seats in the balcony and watched the competition. Of course, we went wild as our team performed and when they announced their score (#1) we all went even more crazy! We went outside, took lots of pictures then headed back to the hotel for showers, naps, food and a little more practicing. Then, we loaded the vans again and headed back to Hard Rock for their Pom routine. They did their best, but their pom routine wasn't their favorite, or the one they really poured their hearts into. The made finals for that routine, too. :) Back to the hotel, a little more practicing, then off to bed for FINALS on Sunday.

Sunday is now kind of a blur. My cute Blog friend, Marie, came with her sweet daughter and granddaughter to watch the team. Her kids and grandkids live a couple of miles from here and her grandson is friends with Sara! It was fun to finally get to give my friend a real life hug since we've known each other in blogland for a few years now. Small world! Anyway, the kids appeared pretty calm, but they were all busy preparing themselves to win this competition. They performed their best and it paid off....BIG. They got 1st place in the Medium Varsity Hip Hop division. Their score was 9.451. The second place team's score was 9.126. The parents in the balcony about flipped!!!! We couldn't help but start screaming and jumping after they announced the second place team. We were so proud and happy for our kids. All the practice, time, tears, money, and huge commitment became so worth it all. They got a HUGE trophy, a banner and every dancer got a NATIONAL CHAMPION jacket. They called friends and family at home, cried, hugged, screamed, danced and posed for lots and lots of pictures. But, it was soon time to head back to the hotel to change for their pom performance. They were still on their "high" from the afternoon and performed their pom routine. They came in 9th out of 10 final qualifying teams. We were all ok with that (at least they didn't come in last. :) ). We planned to go out to dinner at Planet Hollywood, but things got messed up with the reservations (the competition didn't get out soon enough and we were late for our reservation) so we headed back to the hotel and the kids just got stuff to eat at a couple of the restraunts around the hotel.

Monday, we headed to the Parks to play. First stop was Magic Kingdom. We stayed together for a few rides, then everyone went their own ways. We all got done and ready to go to Epcot for dinner and a couple of rides. When that park closed, we headed to MGM since they stayed open late for resort guests. We rode Tower of Terror (one of my favorites) and Rockin' Rollercoaster (another favorite), then headed to the hotel to finally get some much needed sleep. We had planned to go to Animal Kingdom on Tuesday before we headed home, but the kids decided they'd rather swim and just hang out. So, us moms who were there, headed off to lunch, then came back to pack up and head home.

It was nice to be home and get to see my Nisa and Travis, but everyone is a little sad that the season is over. Now it's back to reality, but the kids have a big trophy, their names on the marquee in front of the school, sweet jackets and tons of great memories that I'm sure none of will forget. Go to my Shutterfly page to see the pics. Shutterfly

Look what she made....and we got to eat! :)

This is one of the benefits to having a daughter in Culinary school. You get to eat her classwork. :) She made tarts. Aren't they adorable? And they taste DELICIOUS!!! I know, several of you have offered to test her work. You have to come and visit to get some. Today she is making croissants! I LOVE croissants. Ah, the buttery, flakiness.

Now for the complaining part of this post. We are going to get fat with all these yummy desserts because the snow is still here! I'm so sick of it. There are no sidewalks. You take your life into your own hands if you want to run on the roads, since the plows just pushed the snow onto the shoulders of the roads. oy. I think Travis and I are running on treadmills tomorrow. boring, but necessary. We have a race next month and we haven't gotten any running in BECAUSE OF THE STUPID SNOW.

Ok, I'm done now. I saw some little flower heads poking up in the yard today, the birds are singing every morning when I go outside. I do have some things to be thankful for. We leave for Orlando in a week and 2 days for Sara's dance competition. That is going to be fun!!! :) Ok, that's about it for now. :) I hope you all are having a wonderful week. I love you all!!!! :)

Recovery

We are finally in the recovery mode ~ I hope! We had a little dusting of snow last night, but right now the sun is out and it's a bit warm. We have HUGE chunks of ice on all the roads, so it's still slow going to most places. School was on a 2-hour delay this morning and some schools in the area are still closed because they can't get to sidewalks or bus stops. Even at our school, there is very limited parking, they sent out an email telling students to take the bus or get a ride so they wouldn't have to deal with all those cars trying to find parking.

I know some people laugh, and it IS kinda funny, but when I say the snow has crippled the area, I'm not kidding. People don't have snowblowers here, the city/counties have to hire anybody with a plow on their truck to help plow roads, so you get some dude out there with a 4x4 and a plow (and don't forget the cell phone!) just pushing snow wherever. They don't know what they're even doing! Oy. The Federal Government was closed all last week except Friday, and even then, Travis worked from home. There are HUGE piles of snow EVERYWHERE. No sidewalks can be found and there are TONS of trees uprooted or broken. BUT, the storm that was supposed to come in at the end of the week, isn't looking like it's coming here. YAY!

I'm not TOTALLY complaining, but I am looking forward to all this snow melting and being done with it. I know, CINDY WANTS SNOW TO GO AWAY???REALLY??? Yep, I want the Virginia snow to go away. It's not as fun as Wisconsin snow. I'm attaching a couple of pictures of a couple of days after the last big storm that dumped 2 feet on us. The first one is looking down our street ~our house is on the right. The second picture is the road leaving our neighborhood. I can't wait for spring! :) You can see where the mailboxes are and the street lights. Yeah, that's where the curbs are....there was a 1.5 car-width lane going through the neighborhood. Not fun.

Good Golly!

SNOW, SNOW AND MORE SNOW! Holy smokes. It started yesterday. We shoveled last night about 6 inches so it wouldn't be as horrible today. It was wet, heavy snow so it took us a while to clear out the driveway, sidewalk and pipestem (the little road we live on). While we shoveled, it kept snowing, so by the time we were wet, freezing and ready to come in, there was already another couple of inches on the ground.
They predicted that most of the snow would fall during the night and they were right! We woke up to another 12ish inches. It's hard to tell exactly how much since the wind blew last night too. We shoveled for about an hour and a half and got the driveway and most of the pipestem done. I was so wet that I came in for a while to dry and thaw. :) About an hour later we went back out to finish the job we had started and to clear some of the snow that was still falling. 2 hours later we were tired, cold and wet again. Time to be done. We put the shovels away (it was still snowing a little bit) and came in and thawed out. When I looked outside this evening, we probably got another 3 or 4 inches. On the weather station website it says we got 23.5 inches. I don't think we got that much snow in one storm while we lived in WI. It is TOTALLY CRAZY! And to top things off, they're predicting more snow on Tuesday. I'm not sure if the girls will ever get to school again. The snow is so piled up and the roads are so messy, school and activities are being cancelled left and right. I have sewing to do, and we have power, so there's tv and computer to keep us busy. We have plenty of food to last so we don't have to go out to the store and if the power goes out, we have the trailer with a full propane tank for heat and TONS of blankets and quilts. :) But I really hope the power doesn't go out. That would be a bummer.
Anyway, I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the snow so you can all see what fun we're having! :) tee hee Mostly, I wanted to let you all know, we're still alive and doing fine. :)

snow

They are forecasting a HUGE storm blowing in tomorrow. They are predicting that we will get 18-22 inches. People are FREAKING OUT. This picture was from my phone, so it's not that great, but you can see the bread aisle at the market. I went to get bread and a couple of other things to make our snowed in weekend happy (Oreos and milk). The parking lot was so full that I had to drive around a couple of times (this is a BIG parking lot). I lucked out and got a front spot and ran in. I got to the bread aisle and laughed. The beer section was surprisingly full. It would have been the opposite in Wisconsin. School has been cancelled for tomorrow and the weekend activities are also canceled (there were basketball games scheduled).



We got about 5 inches last weekend. Travis is upset that these storms keep blowing in on the weekends. I saw on the news that they have already measured approximately 24" at Reagan Airport. That is more than the last 3 winters combined. If we get what they're predicting we will go over what the area has gotten in the last 5 winters combined. We brought it with us. That's the only logical explanation. :) This is the view from our upstairs window. Isn't it so pretty??!!

I'll keep you posted this weekend!

Update..mom brag

We finally checked Anisa's grades and were not surprised, but happy to see that she got a 4.0 for her first term. :) It helps when you LOVE what you're doing. Go Anisa!!! :)

Proud Parents

Anisa got a letter from school yesterday. We were thinking, "oh no, I hope it's not a bill. No, it can't be. We should't owe them anything..." So, she opened it and started reading.....

Dear Honor Student,
Congratulations! On behalf of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society at the Art Institute of Washington, we wish to congratulate you on your outstanding academic achievement. Your success has made you eligible for membership in Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society.

So, the ALD invites students who have a 3.5 gpa or higher AND are in the top 20% in their class in their first year. She will be able to compete for special scholarships and fellowships. And, she'll get a special pin. tee hee

We are so proud of our kiddo. She LOVES school (except math and english, but not many people love those classes). We are seeing signs of her becoming an adult, not just because of her age, but her behavior. She'll always be our baby, but someday, she'll be a successful woman....wierd. :) but cool. I know we're not the first parents in this spot, but it's OUR first time in this spot, and so far I really like it. :) I like watching my kids succeed in things they love.

Sara is getting ready to go to Nationals with the dance team. We watched the team last night perform a Pom routine. They looked so awesome. I never get tired of watching them. Of course, I have a hard time watching the TEAM, since I'm more focused on my baby. Sometimes her talent amazes me. I wonder where she learned to do moves like that. :) We were going to go to the DMV today to FINALLY get her driver's permit, but it is snowing out, so I'm not sure today is a good day to even leave the house. Maybe later. We'll see. I'll save that for another post. :)

19

Yesterday was Anisa's 19th birthday. OH MY. The time has flown by. She has turned into a spectacular young lady. She's funny, cute, smart (sometimes smart mouth, but not often). We have fun hanging out together, doing lunch, shopping or even sewing. She is loving school and is doing a good job in her classes. She had a night class yesterday, and because Sara has a weird schedule with dance, we'll do Anisa's b-day meal tomorrow. She wants to go to Chevy's Mex rest. She was not surprised about half her gifts. It's hard to surprise her much anymore, since I can't really buy her clothes anymore, and so when we were out shopping recently we bought a few things for her but I told her she had to ACT surprised when she opened them. :) She got a couple of bottles of Victoria Secret spray, eye shadow, eye make-up stuff (something you put on before your eye shadow and it makes it last longer...ok). Those are the things she knew about. She was surprised about the Williams Sonoma measuring cups, whisk, knife and peeler set. I love WS, and so does Anisa. **I just noticed, she was wearing the same outfit LAST YEAR in her birthday picture. :) hahaha

Today we're hanging out. She's still sleeping (no school today) and I am gonna go sew. Speaking of sewing, I made these little bags for Renee and her (and my new friend) Sara Beth. I showed them the fabric last week and they both REALLY liked it, so I came home and whipped out these fancy-schmancy Monica bags. :) I love how they turned out. The floral fabric might have to be part of my stash. I really like it, but for me, it will be used more as a quilt. I like the little floral bags, but I don't use them. I like making them a lot because they can be whipped out in a few hours from washing to finished project. LOVE THAT! I've got a new quilt in my head, and hope to get to work on that soon. I'm collecting fabrics for it....greens, yellows, golds....I'm gonna keep it a secret til I get it started. :) hee hee I hope you all have a FANTABULOUS weekend! love you!

catching up

I am one lucky chick. I had a lunch date last week with a new friend, Lisa. I have "known" her mom-in-law, Marie from blogging for quite a while now. I haven't had the pleasure of hugging Marie yet, but Lisa is the next best thing! What a sweet chick. We had lunch at Bertucci's italian rest. We visited for over an hour with not a quiet moment, well, except when we were chewing, of course. :) When I found out we were moving to VA, I mentioned it on my blog and Marie told me her kids and grandkids lived here. So, when we found out we were living in Springfield, she was even more excited since that's where the family lives! Turns out, we live about 2 miles from each other and Lisa's son is in Sara's spanish class! It's such a tiny world.

Sara is a little sick chick again. She was sick over Christmas Vaca, and is now sleeping on the couch with a very stuffed up nose and sore throat. Poor little kid.

I have also done some sewing lately. I finished another little nightgown for Princess Ava. Here she is with Baby who also got a couple of nightgowns, so they can be twins. Doesn't she look so cute and snuggly?















I also just made this little backpack. It's kind of Vera Bradley'ish....quilty and soft and cute. :) I will probably give it to Ava, too. :) Next projects are already cut. Working on two more little Monica bags. :)

Dance Team

The dance team had a competition at American University in DC yesterday. They performed their most awesome Hip hop routine and it earned them a First Place, Best Crowd Appeal and Grand Champions who get to perform at an AU Basketball game! We are so proud of the team. These kids work their butts off practicing and getting the routine DOWN.

snow...blah

Well, it snowed here last night. Not a lot, but a couple of inches. Enough to delay school for 2 hours, which made Sara happy. I have decided I don't really care for snow in Virginia. After our big snow, I saw that this place isn't really prepared for snow. It's been over 2 weeks since our storm and there are still HUGE ice piles everywhere. The ice piles were made by the plows that just shoved the snow to one side of the road and left it there. Sidewalks were not cleared, so there are places where you cannot walk (or in our case, RUN) on the sidewalk. I hear that it's supposed to get cold tonight and the stuff on the road will likely freeze. great. Oh well.

On a happier note, Sara has a dance performance tonight at the girls' basketball game. That will be fun to see. I love watching them perform. They are SO good. They practice their buns off and it shows. They have a competition on Sunday, so I'll probably be posting pictures of that later.

I have been sewing today. I made a couple of little nightgowns for Miss Ava (Renee's little chick) and finished one more, along with some matching jammies for her Baby. Then, I made a little bag/purse thingie out of some fabric that I had gotten especially for this little bag. I am heading back up to sew a little more. I'm planning to make a little Vera Bradleyish backpack. I'll post pics of the craftiness soon. :) I just haven't taken pics yet, and I have to give the little Ava model her jammies so I can show you all how adorable that kiddo is. :)

Ok, off to sew! Hope you all have a splendid weekend!

Hot Chocolate with Tiny Marshmallows

That's what I call this little wallhanging. I don't know how or why I thought of it, I don't even really like hot chocolate, but I do like tiny things. :) Maybe it's because anything hot in the cold weather we've been having would be nice. Or, maybe it's just because. :) Anyway, I like how it turned out. Now I have to figure out where I'm gonna put it. :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering it's 19"x19". :) Small, just like I like it. tee hee

Now for the pictures

This post is for pictures mainly. Our Christmas picture and the girls by the tree. :)



















Here is the quilt that I made for Renee for her birthday. It's a pattern called Frog Frolic and I saw it a couple of years ago and REALLY liked it (see the froggies?). Renee likes froggies, so she was the perfect person to make it for. ;) Turns out, she loved it. :)

HAPPY 2010

Wow, can you believe it? It's already 2010. I can't believe how fast time flies. We're heading into DC with the Holm family today. I think we'll hit the Museum of American History and the Botanical Gardens. It's supposed to be about 45 degrees and overcast, which is nice compared to yesterday's 28 and freezing rain in the morning. Luckily, that melted pretty quickly.

We finally got our Christmas/New Years/Holiday cards sent out. We are running so late for EVERYTHING this year. I don't even really have a good excuse. I could say it's because we had company, but I could have done a lot of stuff before they came since it was planned ahead. I could say it's because of the moon aligning with Venus in just the right way, that it threw my whole schedule, but I'm really sure that's not it. But it sounds cool. I was late, because I didn't do stuff on time. period. Oh well.

The point to my whole post today was just to tell all my family and friends who even bother to look at my little (rarely) updated blog that I'm so glad you all are part of my life. People around us are what makes us who we are and I feel very special because I have so many VERY COOL people in my life that I can call my family (I feel like my friends ARE my family). :) I hope this new year goes by slow enough that we all get to enjoy our lives, quick enough that we don't have time to dwell on anything bad and that you all stay happy and healthy in 2010.

I love you all! :)

a couple more snow pics

Well, here is our deck after the snow stopped falling. We got 22 inches of snow (according to the news people). I couldn't measure since it was deep in some spots, and not as deep in others.










Travis and I went out to help shovel the pipestem and made a little mohawk on Foxy girl. Awwww. :) I took her for a drive around the block and got lots of smiles and waves. Then, the snow chunks started falling off onto the windshield...time to go home. :)

It's Monday, now, and school has been cancelled the rest of the week (Sara was supposed to go today, tomorrow and half day on Wed). It's a good thing, tho. I think she might have the flu. She's a sick chick..fever and runny nose. She's been drinking lots of liquids and laying on the couch. My poor little baby. I have to go out to get our Christmas ham, and a couple of presents for Sara. Other than that, we're stayin' in. :)

DC Blizzard 2009 (enter new theme music..dun dun dun)

Well, they predicted we were going to get up to 24 inches around the DC Metro area. They were right! We got a TON of snow. When I measured on the deck it was 16 inches, but the deck isn't a real good indicator because it's kind of protected from the house. I had to go around the house to clear the snow from the heat pump and the snow was up to my thighs! Now, I have to say, the snow is blowing a bit, but that's still a lot of fluffy white stuff.

We are used to snow now, after living in SB for 3 years, but we only got one storm while we lived there that dropped this much snow at once. AND, there are no plows or salt trucks here. AND people in Virginia don't know how to drive in snow. Heck, they can't drive in rain!~ :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from this morning around 11ish. It's been snowing all day and since then, we've gotten a lot more. I'll post some more tomorrow, hopefully. We finally got our Christmas tree yesterday, so hopefully I will have those pics up too.

Here are the vehicles all covered with snow. Don't they look so cute?? :)












This is the deck at around 11 this morning.













Here is the deck around 4 this afternoon. Look at the chairs by the table and the bbq for comparison. We got a lot during the afternoon. I AM LOVING IT!! :)

So Much Stuff

We've had company for 3 weeks, now. Anisa's boyfriend, Aaron has been here from WI, then my mom, sis and niece came to visit for 5ish days. The girls left yesterday, Aaron leaves today. It is always so much fun having company, but it's nice to put the house back together, too. :)

I wanted to post this first, because it was the best day EVER~ we were in DC and a very sweet, tame squirrel came to visit us and even got on my lap. I was THRILLED. Tragically, later we watched a hawk swoop down and take another squirrel for lunch.














Since we've had company, we've been showing them around where we now live. My mom has been to DC several times, but we had to show Wendy and Kelsey and Aaron stuff. Here are some pictures of the last few weeks.

The sun coming into the National Cathedral.
















Mom, Wen and Kels in front of the White House.













The Beautiful Cousins.













Obama landing at the White House from Copenhagen.












A squirrel friend for Aaron.












The Ellipse from the top of the Washington Monument.













Sara had a dance competition this last weekend. They took 1st place, again, but we knew they would. The mix of kids really works. They get along, their coaches are incredible, it's just a really great experience for the dancers (and the parents). Here are some pics from the competition.

Today, Anisa and Aaron will get the last activities in and he will fly home this evening. I'm sure this evening at our house will not be a happy place, but we have had a really good time showing Aaron around. It's gonna be quiet around here, but with Christmas just next week, that will be ok. :)