How do you take your temperature when your dog eats the thermometer ?;)

Good question-----luckily I found another one in our bathroom drawer! That Ollie dog is something else!!!! Today has been a rather "blah" week for me........luckily Matt hasn't gotten the sickness yet. It started Tuesday around noon. I felt great and had a fast (probably too fast) 11 miler that morning. I had to do an inservice for the Gastroenterology group at Baptist and it went great---got a doctor to write a referral while I was still giving the lunch, so I was super excited about this!!!! The rest of the day, I just continued to feel weak with body aches and sore throat and congestion---made it through the day and when I got home checked my temp-
100.7 Ugh---this is no good, I thought. I had to call in sick yesterday and pretty much did nothing all day or night........I literally had to give myself a pep talk to take a shower........"come on, Amanda, you can DO it" ;) Seriously, though, I have felt like pure crap. Last night, temp got up to 102. Matt said maybe it was God's way of slowing me down a little bit..........I tend to take on a little too much sometimes, for those of you that don't know me well ;) LOL! I woke up this morning with no fever so decided I would try to make it through the work day. Still not feeling great this morning, but I am taking a week off for NY in a couple weeks, so I hated to miss any more days. You don't often realize how great it feels to feel healthy until you are sick. Wow! It reminds you to count your blessings for sure.
I went to the screenprint shop to pick up our new long-sleeved MS Heat tri team shirts ---they look awesome! We are having a meeting this Sunday with a great speaker, Dane Rauschenberg--he wrote the book, 52 weekends, 52 marathons. We should have a great crowd!!
As for the half marathon this Saturday, I really don't know what's going to happen. I am playing it by ear. But my 3 options are

1) Race it----(don't know if this will be wise--even if I am feeling wonderful tomorrow, most likely I am not fully recovered yet and might go back into relapse--the last thing I want is to not be ready for NY marathon!)
2) Run it as a training run(my plan calls for a 17 miler this wknd---I would run the course since I paid $80 for this race anyway--and do a 2 mile warm up and 2 mile cool down to get in the full distance
3) Skip the half marathon all together and try my long run for Sunday (this might
mess things up for the next week of training-on the other hand, it would give me
more rest to fully recover)

Decisions, decisions........ugh. But, I am definitely thankful it is not the week of NY marathon..........talk about a moody woman in the household!!!!!! My friend from Shubuta, Staci, is going to be in town and she will be racing as well. She is going to do great as always!! At least I can cheer her on if I don't race!

Matt is on call this weekend, so he won't be able to run the race. He is going to try to get up and possibly get a 15 miler in before work (work is at 7:30am !!!!) Bless his heart, I don't know how he does it.

That's all for now...this weekend will be a last minute decison. Weather looks to be perfect at least!!

Rain, Rain, Go Awayyyyyy

Hello again! I am considering taking up a part-time job to build an ark. I really wonder if I could get some business? ;) Is it EVER going to stop raining??!!!! I know we should be thankful for the rain, but man, it is starting to get a lil depressing.............maybe I could start marketing umbrellas as a friend suggested?;)

Not much news around the Cassell household. I have finally begun a slight decrease in my run volume starting today. I was beginning to feel the impact of the high volume weeks. Last week, I got the flu shot and didn't feel good for a couple days after, but that's much better than getting the flu I suppose!

We have found a new love for sushi (or shall I say Matt has found a new love for sushi-I have always liked it!) We enjoyed very good sushi at Nagoya Friday night. Matt always gets hibachi, but I love the sushi. The Nagoya roll is sooo good, although not the healthiest of sushi :D We hung out with friends Saturday afternoon-watched the game, grilled some burgers,and played with their two kids. We realize we are very spoiled now with no kids!!!! The house is so quiet when we come home and we are free to do whatever we please.......we both remind each other from time to time that we better not take it for granted now because once our family starts growing, I doubt we will have many relaxing days :) Our friends told us that as well ;) lol! We also went to the movies to watch Couples Retreat...........so funny!!! I loved it!

Sunday, Matt took his first shift at the VA from 2pm-8pm. It's a great way for him to make some extra $$$. Although I would much rather have him at home, a few hours at the hospital is great for supporting all the lovely trips we like to take ;)

I'm still debating the half marathon this weekend that I planned on running. My friend called me today to let me know that the deadline was at midnight tonight....glad she called because I am somewhat of a procrastinator and would have waited until Thursday night and then my choice would have been answered for me!

I arrived home today to find that Ollie had closed himself into the laundry room......no idea how but leave it to Ollie to find a way ;) He had made him a little bed on the towels on the floor and was napping away until I came home. It wasn't until after I noticed that he wasn't on his usual spot on the couch that I heard a loud bump (that would be him letting me know he is in the laundry room:) Oh, fun times!!!