Forgot to mention...

I got released from YW yesterday! There are things I will miss...and things I will definitely not miss. It was my time to go. :)

Happy Birthday and Half-Marathon

We celebrated Aaron's 34th birthday on Friday. Elsie and I did a little decorating with balloons and streamers, which she was pretty excited to show him when he got hom from work. He didn't have any court that day, so he was able to come hom around lunchtime. The weather was gorgeous, so we took Charlie on a walk. After Elsie went down for a nap, Aaron and I sat outside and got to enjoy some quiet time together. So nice! We went to Cheesecake Factory (minus kids!) for dinner and hung out a little while with the Collins, but we couldn't stay up too late because of the half-marathon the next morning.

Family picture before dinner. Happy Birthday, Aaron!

I know I've already mentioned a million times how sad I was to not be running in the race. Even at 5:00 in the morning when Aaron had to get up to get ready (I was up at 4:30...I was anxious for him!), I was wishing it was me getting ready to go. But Elsie and I were able to go in to watch him finish and enjoy the festivities. We drove in to Boise, parked kind of far away from the park, and it took a while to walk from the car to get there. About a minute after strolling in to the park, Ken saw Aaron coming around to the finish line. I was panicing trying to get my camera. I'm so glad we made it in time!!

I ran alongside him to get a picture. He was trying to be funny, but I don't think it worked out real well with the timing of the shot. Not the best picture of Aaron!! But we were still so proud of him. He finished in 1 hr. 48 min. That's pretty awesome, I think! That was faster than he had been running, so he was happy with it.

We hung around the park and watched all of our friends finish the race. I was so proud of all of them! Aaron downed 4 things of chocolate milk and a bunch of water. That, combined with the WARM weather that morning, did not sit well in his tummy. He had a bit of a rough day after that! T.M.I???

I got a little picture with Diana and Pam to make me feel like I was a part of things.

And then there's Aaron with the gals since he got to take my place.

Oh happy day...and weekend

We've had a great weekend so far...Aaron's birthday yesterday, the half-marathon this morning (even though I was only a cheerleader), and finally some good weather! The sun is shining, the temperature is perfect, and it has definitely lifted my sprits. (Pictures to follow soon...gotta take nap first.)

fresh cut

Elsie and I got haircuts last week. I just trimmed the back of mine, but it feels so much better. We cut quite a bit off Elsie's hair. It looks so fresh and bouncy now!


Before:Right after: The hairstylist did the cutest curls in her hair. Have I done it since? Nope.This is what is looks like when I do it. It kind of does it's own little curl under thing. I think it looks a lot better. It was getting a little stringy. (Not the best picture...I made her pose and smile right when she came down from her nap. Had to get the blog updated!)

Aaron and I are going to try to take a picture of Charlie every Saturday, so we can see how he grows. This is from May 8th. We are loving Charlie!







Elsie continues to make us laugh and keep us busy. As we were walking Charlie the other night, she was pointing to something on her shirt. I asked her "Is your shirt dirty?" She said, in a very matter of fact voice, "No, there's just something on it." Aaron and I just laughed.


It's official, I'm not running the half-marathon. I'm over being upset about it. Aaron is going to run it instead. At least it's supposed to be a gorgeous day, so Elsie and I can go wait at the finish line and enjoy the festivities. I think Aaron is finally realizing that maybe he should've been a little more sensitive about how I was feeling, and should'nt have been so annoying about getting to take my place. Eleven years later, and he still forgets. :)

:) :(

:)

Elsie and I are getting haircuts on Friday. I'm just trimming mine to help the grow-out. I 'm going to cut at least a few inches off Elsie's hair for summer. She's really excited!

My big "Amazing Race" activity that I'm in charge of is tonight. It should be fun...but I'll be glad when it's over. It has reminded me so much of our family reunion from last summer. What a blast!!

Charlie is doing very well. We have already enjoyed spending time with him and taking him on walks. It will be even better when this windy, cold weather goes away. Elsie loves him so much and does really well with him and all his puppiness! In fact, she's better about it than I am. I feel like our family was missing something, so it's nice to have a dog again. (Wow! I never thought I'd say things like this. Ha ha.)


:(

I don't know if I'm going to be able to run my half-marathon. I've had a leg/hip injury for a few weeks now that just isn't getting better. I stopped working out a week ago because it was just too painful when I tried to do anything...especially run. It feels a little better with the rest, but I just don't know if it's worth pushing myself that much. I want to be able to continue to workout on a regular basis. I'm sad! I feel like I know the right thing to do, but I don't want to do it. I was really looking forward to accomplishing a goal that I had to work really hard for, and I was excited to do it with some friends.

My YW President was pregnant with twins and due in August. She has had her fair share of difficulty in getting pregnant and staying pregnant. On Friday morning her water broke and they were able to stop the labor until Sunday evening. She ended up giving birth to her twins (a boy and girl) at about 27 weeks along. They are actually doing as well as can be excpected. That's the good news. But, boy oh boy, has this brought up all sorts of memories and emotions in me these past couple days!! I'm totally not trying to make this all about me, but I can't help but think about things. I feel like I should not have such sadness and bitterness still, but I do.

Meet Charlie!

We got another dog!

Aaron has gone back and forth since last summer about getting another dog. He was always looking on the internet and then would talk himself out of it because of money, the responsibility, etc. But this time he just couldn't resist. He found a litter that had a chocolate lab (just what we wanted) that didn't cost very much because the dogs aren't papered.

He went to pick it up this afternoon. Elsie didn't really know we were getting him, so we surprised her and she LOVES him. She did tell us that she wanted an orange dog and a yellow dog. I told her that we got a brown one instead, and she seemed to be okay with that. But now she wants a girl dog to go with our boy dog. When I told her his name is Charlie, she thought I meant Charlotte (like the girl in "Princess and the Frog"). She can't quite say Charlie...it's more like Shawie. It's cute

He took a little dip in the pool.

He really likes to be right next to us. While Aaron and I were putting the kennel together this afternoon he had to be right in between our legs. If one of us moved, he would just move to the other one. It melts my heart. :)

Christian, Olivia, and Diana came over with us to see the surprise (Elsie and I were at their house making hair clips). They were all pretty excited. Everyone's pretty excited that we have a dog that their kids can play with and they don't have to take care of it. Ha ha!

I'm sure there will be lots more pictures and updates to follow. The good news is this should solve our cat problem. :)