A very Merry Christmas ;)

We had a very busy Christmas this year for sure!!! We are so blessed to have such amazing families that love us and care for us both. To say we were on the road quite a bit over a two-day period would be an understatement ;)

Although we want to be able to spend time with every family member and not break any traditions, this Christmas traveling is getting tough!!!! We felt like we neglected all families, because as soon as we got to one home, it seemed like we were already saying good-bye!!!! We literally got there, ate, opened gifts, then left. We were so exhausted by the time we got home Christmas night, that we realized that we have to figure out a better plan next year........although I have no idea what that might be!!!

We even got to visit with my dad and stepmom. We met them at Primo's for breakfast after Christmas and exchanged gifts and talked for a while. They headed back to Houston shortly after.

We ate our fair share of goodies I shall say..........WOW did we ever ;) Ollie even had his fair share of chocolate,


a whole BAG of mini Snickers!!!!!!!!! (wrappers and all...........don't ask :) It was not to our knowledge ;)

So blessed to have my grandmother still with us this Christmas (98 years old!!)

Family Pic!!



All the nieces and me acting silly in our PJ's

Christmas eve before opening gifts-----

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!!!

It's hard turning 25 ;) heehee ;D Seriously, though, although I'm not getting any younger, I do feel like I am learning more about myself and strengthening my values and goals in life every year that passes.

Matt took me to Walker's for dinner on my birthday-December 22nd. It was awesome!!! We got the portabella fries for an appetizer, I got redfish topped with crabmeat for dinner, some awesome wine, and we split a brownie/ice cream dessert ;) Yummy!!!!!!




Stuffing our faces at Walker's :)



I am getting a little baby-itch stronger than ever lately, but we are trying to hold off until we get a little credit card debt paid off and I can think about not returning to work. Things we are planning for the future include: A LARGER VEHICLE ;) Seriously, we realized on the trip during Christmas that my little Altima won't suffice with two 90 pounds dogs, presents, and the two of us, much less 2-3 children in the future!!!!! So, in the next year or so, that is on the agenda of to-do's...............along with another pretty large to-do............finding out where we will settle down with this new family we plan on starting ;)

Tacky Christmas party ;)

We had our first annual triathlon team party----It's so fun and rewarding to see the team coming together so well for its first year. It's been a time-consuming, but gratifying year as president for Mississippi Heat. We ordered team jerseys, put on the beginner triathlon, helped donate money for Toys for Tots and Operation shoestring this year, and multiple other things for the team.

The party was a wonderful time to get-together and just enjoy each other's company! Melanie and Charlie did a wonderful job at hosting the party!

Here are some fun pics for the night ;)



We raised money to donate 6 bikes to Toys for Tots this Christmas ;)


Andrew,Bill, and wife all decked out and tacky ;)

The Candy Bar.....yum!!

Matt is a little jealous that Trip won the tacky sweater contest ;)

The winners in all our glory......tacky enough for ya ?! :)

Intense conversation (I'm sure triathlon-related) between Matt, Mike, and Robbie

Creativity flowing from my ears............

Jingle bells, broken nails, canvas art and frames. Someone stopppp me from my madness 'fore I go insane........HEY!!!!
(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, of course ;)

I must say I caught the creative bug this Christmas season. Canvases? Sure. Wooden custom photo frames? Of course. Painted pottery with customized stick families ? Check. Cute, little reindeer truffle pops? Yes please. If I've seen it in a store, I've attempted to copy it. Good for my pocketbook. Not so good for my time management skills ;)

The problem with these cute little crafts is, once I start one, I must create enough for every person in the family that they are going to in order to make sure no one gets left out. That would be embarrassing :( You should see my kitchen table. Seriously. Not pretty. (well, pretty if you think mass chaos piled on top of more mass chaos is beautiful ;)









I think, however, that I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am wrapping up the final canvases tonight and I have a couple more odds and ends to purchase, but I did accomplish my goal of being completely done with Christmas shopping by next week, so I can enjoy everything around me. (I haven't had much time to do that lately----too stressed trying to deal with the "mass chaos table" !!!)

Next week, I am going to have that cup of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows that I purchased 2 weeks ago and haven't had time to open. I am going to sit by the fireplace, listen to Christmas music, make Matt take me Christmas light sightseeing, and not wrap a SINGLE present. High hopes, huh??!! That's the plan.

But, for now, back to the pile of chaos on the table, the Christmas parties, and Christmas party planning, the gift wrapping, the making of Christmas baked goodies.......and don't forget about little Sadie who we are trying to potty train!!!! Lord, help me get through this week ;)

For now, I'll leave you with the 1st Annual Christmas Pub Run from earlier tonight---4 miles of fun-ness ;)

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!!!!!!