100 miles by July 1st

My friend challenged me, back in the beginning of April, to run 100 miles by July 1st. I have been faithfully jogging nearly every day and would like to report I only have 46 more miles to go! It's been tough, as I've never ever ever considered myself a runner, but I can now jog 3.6 miles without stopping and am so proud! I will be running in my first 5K on July 3rd and am excited to cross the finish line. It will be a day of celebration for our little family as July 3rd is also Addie's 1st birthday.

Now I have to concentrate on healthy eating as well so I can fuel my body appropriately and feel completely happy with myself. I have been amazed at how much can be accomplished with determination and a good support system. I've actually had quite a change of attitude since all this running began and instead of feeling disappointed and frustrated with my body, have been able to be more optimistic by knowing it's only temporary!

Memphis Monday: BEAUTIFUL TREES

After living in Utah for (eek!) nearly seven years, I have come to treasure lush, green trees. Growing up in Michigan, I missed seeing green while attending BYU, but beautiful Memphis has brought it all back. Maples, elms and oaks line the streets and paths, creating homes for millions of squirrels and shade during my jogging adventures. I also think a lawn with a thick, aged tree (perfect for climbing, of course) is almost necessary for the proper care of a child's imagination. Ah, I will take the green of trees over the mountains any day. And don't get me started on autumn-- trees alive with reds, oranges and yellows are my absolute favorite!

getting creative: PART 2

I've had several people ask how I made the Addie sign.

1. Painted the whole wooden "plate" with a rose color, let it dry
2. I made my own stencils. You could probably print some pictures off the computer, but I free-handed the five different shapes I used for the background (star, bear, flower, butterfly, heart).
3. Transferred the shapes onto cardstock and cut them out
4. Traced the shapes with pencil onto the wood
5. Painted those in with light pink, let it dry
6. Erased any pencil still showing with a regular eraser
7. Chose a font I liked on the computer (Curlz) and made it the right size (I think it was 450)
8. Transferred those letters onto cardstock and cut them out
9. Repeated steps 4 to 6
9. Wa lah! A beautiful sign!

The whole project took me two nights, about 4 hours total. I used regular acrylic paint. I'm glad y'all like it!

getting creative

Here is the finished product of a little project I've been working on the last couple of days. I'm pleased with how it turned out!

And here is Addie loving her spaghetti as usual!

Memphis Monday: BBQ

I'm sorry this Memphis Monday is also late, we've been having trouble with our Internet the last couple of days.


Another reason that I love living in Memphis is the BBQ. Mmmmm...it is delicious! Barbecue in the South really IS different (and much better!) than anywhere else. What was the first restaurant I wanted to go to after my gall bladder surgery? Corkys for a pulled pork salad! Jason and I love trying out new barbecue places (I wish our budget allowed for it more often) and we've tried several. Our favorite is still Corkys, though The Barbecue Shop ranks up there for their sandwiches. The next place we want to try is Rendezvous. Jason loves Memphis-style ribs and you can't go wrong with a pulled-pork sandwich. One thing I'll never get used to, however, are barbecue nachos. There is just something innately wrong about combining Mexican and good ole BBQ. Yay for Memphis and it's delicious barbecue!

Un Floridad Vacacion!!

I thought I'd post something since it's been awhile. It's hard to post during school, but now that I'm out for the summer--what a better way than to start blogging about the vacation we had in Florida!!

Here's the official report of our vacation:

We started out in Fort Lauderdale, FL and although we didn't have time to do a lot there--we were able to go on an airboat ride in the Everglades and were able to see an alligator! Those airboats are LOUD, thus the earplugs in my ears.

After a couple days in Fort Lauderdale we went on our cruise to Nassau, Bahamas, it was a small cruise ship compared to some of the others we saw and the swimming pool was only a little bigger than the hot tubs, but the service was amazing, we made a few friends, and the cruise line fed us every couple hours--it was lots of fun!

Just chillin' out on the deck.

Once we got to the Bahamas we went snorkeling and rented a mo-ped to tour the island...it was tons of fun!

When we first rented the mo-ped we weren't told what side of the road we were to drive on--it was quite a surprise to turn on to a street as I normally would and a bus coming straight towards us. It was a little different driving on the left hand side of the road at first, but not too bad once I got used to it.

The buildings down there were so cool and they were all painted in cool colors!

After we got back to America the beautiful we went to Orlando--the first night we went to a world renowned restaurant, Wolfgang Puck, and ate the best Sushi we've ever had and also some very delicious pizza...The next day we hung out at Hollywood Studios in Disneyworld and saw some cool shows and went on some great rides!

These are made completely out of Legos:

Florida was a blast, although there were a lot of things we wanted to do that we didn't have time to--we'll just have to do it some other day...

Sorry there are so many pictures in one blog, but there was so much to share!

I hope your week was as fun as ours! Happy Summer to ya'll!!

PS...I accidentally posted under Jana's name, but not to worry it truly is the ole J man.