Happy Anniversary to us...................

Yesterday was our anniversary.......3 years has gone by SO fast to me!!! Time flies when you're havin' fun, right? :) I'm so thankful to be married to Matt. He is more than I could have ever asked for, and for those of you that know my whole story, it didn't take long to find that out ;) I am, and will always be, convinced that he was sent from God especially for me :) Just for fun, I am attaching our last 3 years together!

Our first Anniversary---(in New Orleans at GW Fins--the place we ate the night he proposed!)


Our 2nd Anniversary------Mint Restaurant (right after its grand opening last year)


Matt and I, with full bellies----- at Shapley's last night for our 3rd anniversary



We didn't get to leave town because our anniversary fell in the middle of the week, but we did have a very nice dinner last night at Shapleys. This is our favorite restaurant in Jackson, and the reason I found a love for steak. I was always a chicken over steak person; that is, until I tasted a steak from Shapley's ;) Mmmmm.......makes me want another one right now ;) We always leave there waddlin' out ;)

It has been a rather hectic few days since I last blogged; Sadie became more sick, to the point of doing nothing but sleeping. We were so worried about her that we decided to go ahead and take her in to let the vet take a look. They really frightened me Tuesday, to the point of tears when I left there. They told me that they needed to act very aggressively with her; she is so little, and had become very dehyrated from the vomiting/diarrhea. They still have her today, but after 3 bags of IV fluids with glucose, she "has some pep in her step", they told me ;)
I am so relieved; We didn't have a clue it would cost this much, but we are thankful that she will be coming home with us tonight!!!!!

As far as the Blackberry incident, it looks like it might survive the washing----fingers still crossed. I covered it in a dish of uncooked rice, to draw out the moisture. Last night was the first night I tried to turn the phone on; It's still a little damp, but hopefully it will be back to working shape tomorrow ;)

I am going to attempt some heavy Christmas shopping over the next few nights------hope I can get it all done soon and make it out of the shopping centers alive !!!!! Christmas shopping and me don't get along ;)

Training is pretty non-exsistent this week, and I am taking full advantage of it ;) Yesterday, I went for a light run for the first time and a light swim. Might try the bike trainer out tonight............or maybe not ;) The only problem with not training for the next two weeks is that I have to remember to not eat like I am still training.................aka--the way I have eaten every day since Memphis Marathon ;)

NO TRAINING + CHRISTMAS GOODIE INDULGENCES = BADNESS;)

Looking forward to the Christmas special at Pinelake this weekend!!!! Hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season!!!

Making Her Grand Debut-----------Sadie Girl ;)

I promised an update on our newest little family member on our last blog post. Well, here she is in all her glory :)



She is only 6 weeks old, but she already has LOTS of personality ;) Ollie doesn't quite know what to think of her yet. He understands that she is smaller than him, but he wants to play with her SO bad and doesn't quite know how ;) He is actually a little scared of her; He DOES let her play with his toys, though, so that is a good sign.

I am a little worried about her right now. The first night we got her home, she cried all night, which is expected. We are crate-training her, so it is hard to hear her crying in the other room and not do anything about her. I think her little system is in shock right now because she has had an upset stomach for the past two days. To top it all off, this morning I was holding her in my lap while I checked my emails; I was getting ready for work and had a load of laundry in the washer. I stuck my phone in my robe while I held her. Suddenly, she started vomiting ALL over my robe; Quickly thinking, I ran to the washing machine, threw my robe in with the other clothes I had just started and went into the other room to tend to her.

Yeah, so I washed my Blackberry. Not good. Not good at all. You never truly appreciate your need for a cell phone until you don't have immediate access to it. I HAVE to have my cell phone at all times due to my job. I am constantly in my car; I don't even have a land line. Needless to say, I panicked. Luckily, Matt has an old cell phone, so I took it to Cellular South and they transferred my number for now. I researched a little bit and read to put a water-logged phone in a bowl of dry rice. The rice tends to soak up all the excess water from the phone. I am not supposed to even put the battery back in the phone for 48 hours. I'm praying that it will work when I try again. I really can't afford to buy a brand new phone during the holidays :(

I did find an interesting item at Petsmart for Sadie, until she gets over this shock of being in a new environment. Check it out!!! Puppy diapers ;) Don't laugh!!!! These things are a God-send at the moment; I don't want her to be restricted right now, because I read that newborn puppies need affection more than anything to keep them well. At least with the diapers, she can walk around us for limited amounts of time without fear of her having an accient all over the place.





Please pray that she will get over this transition quickly. I want her to enjoy her new family and not feel so horrible all the time like she seems to be lately :(

Marathon #10 is in the books!!!

Matt and I had a great weekend, despite the cold weather and short trip to Memphis. We didn't get out of town until Friday late afternoon and arrived to Memphis marathon expo in time to pick up our race packets and check into the hotel. It was so cold outside and later than we would have liked to eat dinner, so we decided to just call in a pizza delivery to the hotel. Good choice since it was so cold outside (27 degrees!!!) and we didn't want to get back out in the weather that night. Nothing too eventful happened Friday----normal night before a marathon-----got our race gear together, (this one was a little harder to dress for because of the cold weather--we decided on multiple layers!), relaxed and watched TV a little bit, and then tried to get a good night's sleep.

I WAS happy that the race didn't start until 8 am--a little later start than most marathons. We were about 1 mile from the start, so we ate breakfast, walked over to Charlie and Melanie's room, and decided to all get a taxi to the start.....ha!!!.......HEY we are already running 26.2 miles........no need to make the legs do more than they have to ;)

Matt and I started off together. You can see from my earlier posts that he has been having some foot problems lately, so I said a little prayer that everything would go ok for him throughout the race. Off went the gun and we paced each other from the start. (Well, he paced me ;) He told me I was not allowed to get in front of him at any time---I have a tendency to want to start off a little bit fast because I get so excited with all the other runners around ;)

It goes something like this:

Matt: "Babe, slow down. Stay beside me".

Amanda: (grin) "okkkkkkk"

Matt: "Babe, you're doing it again----stay beside me".

Amanda: (grin) "I knowwww"

Matt: "Babe, slow down."

******Just repeat this dialogue over and over for quite some time ;)


I really enjoyed (as much as you can enjoy a marathon) having Matt beside me. The last 3 marathons (Houston, Boston, and NYC) I have run completely alone, so it was really nice to have him there, even if we didn't exchange words at all. In a marathon, you go through doubtful, dark times and hopeful times throughout the course. To me, I try not to even think about what I am doing until I hit mile 10. At mile 10, I start asking myself if everything is feeling ok, body-wise. If so, I sort of switch off again until mile 20. Miles 10-20, in my opinion, are the no-man's land. Anything can happen. It's way too early to be happy if you are feeling good, but also I try not to read too much into it if I'm not feeling good.
We both experienced different points where one of us would say, "I'm not feeling it.......it's not going to be a good day." But, it was nice to encourage each other and try to look past the mental blocks of those times.

For me, when I get to mile 20 of a marathon, I start telling myself to "suck it up". It hurts---it's going to hurt--it's supposed to hurt. Like they say, if it was easy, everyone would do it. I will say this is the first year where I have trained my body to push through that hurt. I told Matt at mile 15 Saturday that I didn't know how much longer I could keep the running pace up. It got better, but I think a great deal of it is mental training as well. This was the most I have ever had to push through the pain of a marathon. It HURT!!!! It really hurt this time. But at the same time, I kept telling myself, "get to the next mile marker, get to the next mile marker." At mile 23, there was a big guy behind a tree--he looked like an athlete. As I passed, I think he could see the grit and determination, as well as pure hurt in my face. He said, "Come on, this is what you put all those long, hard miles in for.....this is what it's about". That pulled me through another mile. Once I hit mile 25 of a marathon, I know that I can make it the rest of the way. I honestly don't even tell myself I might reach a goal until I hit that point in the race. Too much can happen out there.

I did slow down the last 3 miles, but they were still under 8 minute miles, so I can't complain. When I had to leave Matt around mile 19 1/2, it was really hard. Part of me wanted to stop and just finish with him, but part of me wondered if I could pull out that 3:20 or better. I knew he wouldn't want me to wait on him, so I did what he told me and went ahead. It was some lonely miles out there. No crowd support and just long, hard miles. I was SO ready to cross that finish line.

Final times for the day-----I finished in 3:21:11. I placed 2nd female in my age group and 19th overall female. I had no idea I even placed, or we might have stuck around for the awards!! I beat my NY time, even if not by much, so I was satisfied by this. I am proud to have even done this, seeing as though NY was only 4 weeks ago. It puts that hunger in me, though, of wondering what I could accomplish if I gave my body a true rest and trained hard again and tried a marathon out on a truly fast, flat course. Oh well, I will have to wait until next year.........Ironman Canada is on the radar, so no more time for marathons now!!! I will always love marathons. That was the first big accomplishment I ever had with endurance events, and it is my favorite........now if I could only convince Matt ;)

Matt finished in 3:34. His foot held out for him and I am so relieved he is not injured. He beat his old marathon time by a great deal. He is satisfied with it and very well should be. It just frustrates me for him, because he has the potential to REALLY kick butt in a marathon!! I know he could have done a 3:20 or better, but due to his cramps he experiences at every marathon he has done (this makes #3 for him), he can never know what time he could have really accomplished. One day he is going to figure out those cramps and completely kick my butt!!!!!!!!!!! I know I better watch out :) I am thankful, though, to be fast enough to run with my husband. This makes training so much more fun, because I know a lot of couples can't train together b/c one is usually a different speed than the other.

We have eaten SO much junk throughout the weekend it is not even funny!!!!!!!!!! We are enjoying it thoroughly though ;) I will put out another post soon about our new little family member we picked up on the way home!!!!!!

It's taper time in the citttyyyyyyy.........(for Memphis, that is ;)

The week has come-------crazy how it seems to fly by since the NY marathon! I did my last "real" run today with a few strides to test out the legs. I really have no idea what to expect from this marathon, seeing that I have never tried multiple marathons within 4 weeks of one another. I seem to be feeling ok, besides a little bit of ache in my left knee since NY----I am hoping this is just the shift to cold weather. I seem to feel my joints more in the winter than summer conditions.

My Predictions for Memphis (yes, I know these are pretty much every outcome there is, but I'm throwin' them all out there ;) LOL!!


1) I might possibly PR due to Memphis being an easier course than New York. (This would be awesome, but might be asking too much--- p.s. I really hate even including this setence b/c I always feel I am jinxing myself by predicting things ;D
2) Pure exhaustion will come out during this marathon due to NY and not recovering enough and I might bomb this one-----(Oh gosh, I hope not:(
3) I might possibly have some type of injury in my knee lurking and it will only rear its ugly head during the middle miles of the marathon and I might have to sit out the rest ........Yeah, go ahead, laugh.......I worry excessively and the preacher said in church a couple weeks ago that worrying is a sin in itself.......Note to self-----QUIT worrying so freaking' much about worst-case scenarios!!!!!!!! (ok, I feel better now.........It's ALL out on the table ;) em>

Matt has not run since last Wednesday......he has converted to pool running to give the foot a break and is thinking of testing it out Friday morning. It will really be a game-day decision for him. I am hoping that he will be fine; I would love to run beside him the whole way---I know we could push each other through the hard miles toward the end. I don't, however, want him to become injured from "toughing it out" on this marathon. He doesn't enjoy marathons as much as me; he would rather do triathlons. So, it is worth him just doing the half instead of the full marathon if it is hurting him, in order to be fully healed by January for the start of Ironman Canada training. We are thinking of taking a full two weeks off from running and biking after Memphis.............Wow that will be hard for me because running is my stress-reliever ;) We will still swim to keep the fitness up. We both feel we would benefit from a nice break during Christmas in order to get back into the groove of Ironman training in January. I want to be fresh when we start back up!!

We will be getting a new addition to the family this weekend as well ;) Her name will be Sadie and she is a chocolate Doodle. Ollie is going to be SO excited----I can't wait for him to have a friend to play with and know that while we are away all day, he is not lonely and sad...........I will feel MUCH better knowing they are together enjoying each other's company :) We are picking her up in Arkansas, about a 45 minute drive from Memphis. It will be a long ride back after running the marathon, picking her up, and driving right back to Jackson. We are just trying to save some money through the holidays by not staying another night in Memphis.

We've been talking a lot lately and trying to plan things out a little more for the future----paying off some debt, where we want to live and options for us to live, children, etc. I am getting a little baby itch right now. Matt just laughs and says, "Well, we can solve that problem!!" We want to wait at least until Ironman Canada is over.....then we shall see!! The longer we can hold off for Matt to be almost finished with his fellowship, the better it will be financially for all of us, and I can convert to "stay-at-home mommy" like I have always dreamed of doing :)

Please coninue to pray for my Dad and stepmom. Her Alzheimer's is getting worse, and he will, in fact, be retiring at the end of the year to take care of her. I talked to her for the first time today and my heart goes out to them. I worry about my Dad and the stress brought on right now through all of this as well. He is trying to sell his house in Texas in order to move back to Meridian. I know all I can do is trust in the Lord and pray for them and love them at this time. As difficult as this is for them and as much as we want to help, that's all we can do right now. God does answer prayers, even though we may not understand all of this right now.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season, and we will report back after Memphis!!

" Pour some Sugar on Me..........."

LOTS and LOTS of sugar that is ;) The finished Product!!!!! Two days of hard, but accomplished work ;)
(not too bad for my 2nd cake ever ;)

So much to give thanks for on this Thanksgiving day!!!

I have spent the weekdays this week writing out day by day, the things that I am thankful for. While I could go on forever, the things I have included this week on Facebook are----

1)I am thankful, most of all, for my God. He has blessed me beyond belief for so many things that I don't deserve. Thank you God-for without you, we would have nothing to be thankful for.

2)I am thankful that God sent me such an amazing husband. A man who loves the Lord, is selfless and encouraging to me,trustworthy and sincere, and also my best friend!

3) I am thankful for my wonderful family-You have helped teach me priorities and values in life, been there through happy,fun times, as well as dark,sad times, but you are always there when I need you. No questions asked-just unconitional, selfless love.

I am still continuing this list throughout the week, but those are the few that I have come up with the last few days. I really do have so much to be thankful for. We all do. Sometimes, I think we all tend to forget what God has blessed us with---just the basic things of living that we take for granted.

My mother gave me a few quotes a couple years ago and they hang on my refrigerator. They remind us of things that we often take for granted. Here goes!!!!

* Be thankful for the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means you have
enough to eat.
* Be thankful for the mess you clean up after a party, because it means you have
been surrounded by friends.
* Be thankful for the taxes you pay, because it means you're employed.
* Be thankful that your lawn needs mowing and your windows need fixing, b/c
it means you have a home.
* Be thankful for the heating bill, because it means you are warm.
* Be thankful for the laundry, b/c it means you have clothes to wear.
* Be thankful for the space you find at the far end of the parking lot, b/c it
means you can walk.
* Be thankful for the lady who sings off-key behind you in church, b/c it means
you can hear.
* Be thankful when people complain about the government, b/c it means we have
freedom of speech.
* Be thankful for the alarms that goes off in the early morning hours, b/c it
means you're alive.


Hope you enjoy those as much as me!!! In other news this week, I have spent the last two days baking a HUGE birthday cake for Matt's mother's 50th birthday tomorrow. Wow!!! I did not have a clue the labor this thing would take ;)
By the numbers, I went through over 1 carton of eggs 16 (yes, 16) sticks of butter (can you feel your arteries clogging as we speak??;p) 2 bags of flour, 2 bags of sugar, 1 gallon milk, and 5 boxes of confectioner's sugar..........and a few other things like fondant, decorations, etc. that I am forgetting to include.

I only had 3 cake pans, but each layer required 3 cake pans each----that meant baking them all separately, cleaning the pans, and baking again.........did I mention I made this cake from scratch........as well as the buttercream icing???!! Oh yeah............last night the baking process alone took 7 hours, with 2 hours of carving and icing. Matt carved out the layers to make them appear "topsy-turvy". ---Don't think I could have done that part without him!! Tonight consisted of decorating the remainder of the cake with fondant, etc. Total cakes = 8 cakes, although in the photos I post later it appears to only be 3 layers. It's called a topsy-turvy cake........I hope she loves it ;)


I think Matt has converted to only aqua-jogging until the marathon. He is be extra-cautious with his foot, because he definitely doesn't want an injury right now leading into Ironman Canada training for next season. I am feeling much better than the previous weeks after NY marathon--not feeling that sluggish feeling anymore. I even pushed myself on mile repeats this morning (which I have a hard time doing alone, especially on a cold morning when I'm tired already from the weekly mileage.) Taper for Memphis has begun, and I plan on enjoying next week thoroughly ;) We plan on taking a couple weeks almost completely off after Memphis marathon in order to rest up and recover and really prepare ourselves for the big triathlon season ahead........I know Matt is excited!! (especially to be done with marathon training ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and gobble up plenty of good food ;)

How to take out a mailbox in 2 seconds flat, using only a Goldendoodle ---by Amanda Cassell

The Innocent Party
The Guilty Party (aka Mailbox Murderer) ---Wanted Dead or Alive



Oh the adventures Ollie dog, Matt, and I have shared.............and to think--we are actually getting yet ANOTHER doodle, you ask yourself??!!! We have truly lost our mind ;) Well, crazy loves company,or so they say........we will have one house full of CRAZY come mid-December in the Cassell household----with an added bonus of a chocolate doodle puppy ;) I just feel so sad for Ollie dog when I come home at lunch and he is looking all lonely and pitiful:( He needs a friend!!! Especially since he is a spoiled little booger already. If we get him a friend to stay entertained with, once we have children, he shouldn't feel so neglected and both of the dogs will have a chance to mellow out a little more by the time the kids arrive. Ollie has actually become quite mellow in the last couple months. We have a hard time getting him up in the morning, and when I come home, he is sprawled out on the couch sleeping...he fell asleep with his body across the couch and his head on my shoulder at 6 pm the other night....out snoring in 5 seconds once his head hit my shoulder! ha ;)

Ok, on to the adventure from yesterday evening---Matt had to go to journal club at the hospital, so I decided I would take Ollie for a little run. I was only going to take him for a couple miles---you should see how excited he gets when I grab the leash~ He was doing great, running with me--he holds about an 8:30 mile--We were on our last mile home and before I know it, he has wrapped the retractable leash around a mailbox, pulled it out of the ground, and is dragging the mailbox in his leash, all in a matter of seconds!!!!!! OMG---I looked around to see if we were causing a scene, unwrapped the leash, and Ollie is just sitting there, looking at me like, "What did I dooooo??" I yelled at him to stay, observed the mailbox for a second, and realized the wood holding it into the ground was rotted and it appeared that someone had placed it back in the hole in the ground temporarily (Whew, maybe Ollie DIDN'T do the damage!) No one was home, so all I could do was pick the leash back up and run the rest of the way home with him and my red-faced self. Ollie never even batted an eyelash at the poor mailbox. How do I always get myself into these situations??!! I have to go back and let someone know what happened today though----hopefully they will tell me it was already broken, like I assume.

This week has been very tiresome for me, training wise. I think I am hitting the burn-out phase of multiple marathoning. A great deal of my marathon training is that I have a great mental toughness when I set a goal for something. NY Marathon was a big goal for me, and when I was pleased with my time, Memphis was sort of on the back burner. I still want to do very well with Memphis marathon, but my mental attitude since NY is not there right now. It's a struggle to be able to get up in the early mornings, now that it's cold, and even though I do make myself get up, the run's are tiresome and I am just trying to push throught them. This morning, for instance, the alarm went off at 4:15 am. Matt always gets out of bed first. Ollie dog always jumps in the bed when Matt gets out (he is taking advantage of "alpha dog" haha!)

I lay around for ohhhhh.........20 more minutes ;)

THE SCENARIO

Matt(4:15am) -- "Morning Babe, get up"

Amanda--"nnooooooooooo.........I'm so tiiiiiiirrreedddd Mattt"

Matt-(4:25am) (after eating a snack) Amanda, you gotta get out of the bed"

Amanda-- "Matt, I'm sooooooo tired......I just wanna sleepppppppp.....I'm so tired I feel nauseousssssss:( Just a few more minutesssssssssss.........(in my pleading voice)

Matt-(4:30am) (Ollie is now laying on one side of the bed,on his back-with legs sprawled in the air,snoring--I'm on the other side, on my back, pretending to be asleep, hoping Matt will leave the room for another 5 minutes ;)
"You two are something else---what am I going to do with you?? Lazy, lazy, lazy"

Amanda- I promise I am getting up RIGHT now...........(did that sound persuasive, I wonder to myself? Maybe he will leave the room for just 5 more minutes ;)

Matt- (4:35am) (after checking his email) "All right babe, come on".......(picking me up, placing each foot on the ground one at a time, and this morning carrying me into the bathroom ---(while Ollie is trying to jump up in his arms at the same time b/c he is jealous)........All right, now you're up........get READY babe!!!! ;)

It's actually pretty entertaining to watch, I would imagine ;) Can we say SLEEP DEPRIVED???!!!!! hahaha!! Once I'm up and the run is over, I am a new woman..........(the steps to get me to that point, however, are a little much!)


Do not fret, however; This is not an everyday occurance (Well, it's only an occurance when Matt has to be done with running 12 miles before it's even LIGHT outside!!!!!! I'm not a complete lazy bum, I promise ;) I am just a big fan of sleep and comfort, none of which you can accomplish when running 12 milers before the sun comes up ;p)

I hope I am just suffering from a little post-marathon fatigue and not overtraining syndrome. My pace hasn't slowed very much---everything just seems to take more effort and with my mental toughness of having a goal to attain, it's harder than ever. Hope I get it back before Memphis or it ain't gonna be pretty ;(
Hopefully the taper after next week will do me some good. I need to start getting better sleep at night and tryihng not to be so stressed over things like the big month of patients at work (can't complain about more business), Christmas gifts, friends and family I am praying for in which I have no control over, etc.

I am going to take it all in stride and do what I so often tell others........"One day at a time, One day at a time"...........or at least until Ollie murders another neighborhood mailbox ;)