Wordless Wednesday

(beautiful day)

Bellin Run: Day 2

So Day 2 calls for a 15 minute run, as you know if you read my last blog post. So Brad and I decided to try a morning run. I was a little nervous about this, since we both have a hard enough time getting out of bed in the morning at 6:30am, how would we get up at 6:00am???

So the alarm goes off at 6 and it was still pretty dark outside. So we decide to snooze for a few minutes, which is a dangerous thing, let me tell you. Somehow I pulled myself out of bed at 6:10am and started getting running gear on. Brad was still in bed but got up when I asked "Are you making me go by myself?" :)

So we get outside and it's pretty cold and also still quite dark and a little foggy. Not ideal for being awake early. But we somehow did it! Actually we ran the 15 minutes but took two short "walk and catch your breath" breaks in between for me. By the end I was pretty much panting and sweating and Brad wasn't even winded. Poor Brad. He pretty much had to jog in place because I'm such a slow runner.

Day 3 on Thursday calls for another 15 minute run. This time we're going to try for only one break at 7.5 minutes. We'll see how it goes.

So far it's 9:30am (My kids are in gym) and I'm still awake and kickin'. We'll see how exhausted I am tonight though. I actually did like working out in the morning and it's nice to know I'm done for the day! :) Check back Thursday to see how Day 3 goes.

Bellin Run: Training Begins

So Brad and I decided we'd try to do the Bellin Run again this year. I did it two years ago without any training and just walked-ran the whole thing. It was fun though! This year we decided we'd better actually do some kind of training, as neither of us have been working out much lately. So we downloaded the recommended training plan from the Bellin Run site.

Day one was a breeze: Walk 15-30 minutes. We usually walk for 30 minutes a few days a week anyway, so that was easy. But I'm dreading Day two: Run 15 minutes. Seriously? You go from walk 15 minutes to run 15 minutes??? I don't think it's going to go well on Day two tomorrow. Luckily they give us one day in between to "rest." I have mixed feelings about training with Brad. I'm glad to have a partner to do it with, but I also know his legs are much longer than mine and even walking with him is sort of a jog. So we'll see how this goes.

I'll update you on Day two tomorrow.

A Fun Weekend With Nate!

Well it was a great weekend! It started Friday night with a game and appetizer night. We made BBQ meatballs in the crockpot, as well as bean dip and some other random things. Missy came over to hang out with us and Nate and we played Mario Bros, Apples to Apples, and of course, Band Hero. Although Nate was really exited to do this, he refused to sing at all. :) So he mostly played the drums. Afterwards, we decided to play Mario Mix DDR (which is a Game Cube game but the cool thing about Wii is you can play your old games on it). Well surprisingly, Nate LOVED this game! He woke up the next morning wanting to play it again, and we pretty much couldn't get him off of it. Turns out Nate loves dancing. :)





Saturday Brad and Nate drove to Madison to watch the Oostburg girls' basketball team at state. Then that night Missy and Kyle came over and we had ANOTHER game night! Some board games but lots of DDR...



Sunday we went to church then the Humane Society, had lunch, and watched "The Princess and the Frog." Then it was time for Nate to go. But we had a great weekend and can't wait to have him back!

9 Months!

Married 9 months yesterday!

Awaiting Our Weekend Guest

Excited to have a visit from this guy this weekend! Nate's coming to stay with us. This means it'll be a weekend full of laughing, Wii, and games! Fun!

Fireplace

Yesterday Brad and his dad worked on the fireplace. They cut and laid the tile surrounding the fireplace themselves! I'm so impressed with their work - it looks great! They still have to do the grout in between the tile, but here are some pics of the work so far. And we laid the fireplace mantel up against it so you can picture what it will look like eventually. I can't wait!




On Friday night, we went to an auction for our church's school. There was a silent auction, plated dinner, and live auction. I've never been to a live auction, so that was really interesting. Everyone at our table was kind of in our same boat financially, so it wasn't really in any of our budgets to be the high bidders on the trips or anything. :) But I REALLY wanted the little puppy that they had, so we did bid in on that. Unfortunately it ended up going for way over one thousand dollars. Needless to say, I don't have a puppy yet. But it was a really fun time. We did go home with a cooking class and picnic basket. :) And we had lots of fun with our friends.


On Saturday, I went to my friend Carrie's bachelorette party (well part of it at least- it was a whole night and day event!). I went to a really fun cooking class at Antigua restaurant. I guess they do the cooking class once a month. I would highly recommend the class or just going out to eat at the restaurant. The staff is great!

Wordless Wednesday!

Spring Has Sprung!

Well I guess it's not totally officially spring yet, but it sure seems like it is! Warm, rainy days all week and NO SNOW anywhere in our yard anymore...I love it! Seriously, how can it be that I am excited to see rain? Although I do remember being excited about the first snowfall, too, and THAT got old fast. I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before the puddles, mud, and drizzle are enough to make me crazy. But for now, I'm enjoying it. The only downside is that it makes it tricky to take walks, which I've really been enjoying in the warm-ish weather, AND it means indoor recess at school, which makes for a rather insane afternoon.

In other news, Randy and Brad worked on the house again Saturday. The big projects were: starting to put the trim/baseboards up in the family room and cutting tile. Randy even let Brad work the wet saw for cutting tile. He did a great job! (Of course now he thinks he'll go into the tile cutting business...I think that's going a little far)...But I'm finally beginning to imagine what it will look like when it's finished, and I'm super excited!!!




Even with Saturday spent working on the house (I was taking care of 5ish loads of laundry & grocery shopping), we managed to find time to have fun, too. Friday night we went to Lakefront with some friends for a Brewery tour and fish fry (well Brad had fish, I had grilled cheese). Saturday we went to see an Irish Band with Missy - fun! Perfect timing for St. Patty's Day.




Oh and here's my new ladder shelf Brad put together for me! I've wanted one of these since we moved in but they're kind of expensive.

Save a Place For Me

I love to pass along meaningful, great songs when I find them. This one is particularly uplifting if you've lost someone you love. Reminds me that our real home is not here, but Heaven, and that's where we'll all be together again someday.

Visit from Mom

On Friday, Brad's dad, Randy came down to Brookfield again and worked on the house when we were at work (is he the best or what?!?!). He finished the hutch (notice it now has glass and doors), finished staining the shelf in the living room, took down a decorative (not attractive) piece of wood from above the sink, and some other random stuff. Here are a few pics of the latest updates:





Then on Saturday morning my mom came down for a visit. My sis came to hang out with us, too. We went to TGIFridays at Miller Park for lunch, then went to see all the cute pups at the Humane Society. I wanted to take two home but Brad wasn't budging on waiting until summer. Probably a good choice, but they were cute!!!




At night we went to a comedy show at our church (like comedy sports). It was HILARIOUS. Our church served appetizers before and cookies after the show, which was yummy and it was a really fun time. Sunday we went to church, had a nice lunch, then just hung around for awhile until my mom had to drive back to GB. It was a fun weekend. And I must say - I'm loving the sunshine! I'm just about ready to break out those flip flops I bought at Target a few weeks ago and the spring purse I got at TJMaxx.


OH! I almost forgot. We (and by we I mean Brad) finally took down our Christmas lights this weekend. I was actually kind of sad about it, but I guess that means we're getting closer to spring. I'm sure the neighbors were happy...

New Camera!!!

So this past weekend we finally got a new camera - yeah!!! I read some online reviews and was ready to buy immediately...Brad of course wanted to read EVERY review on every site and it was looking like we weren't going to have a camera for a very long time. :) But then when Brad's dad was down working on the house on Saturday he brought along his Costco ad to see if we wanted anything there. Brad noticed there was a camera on sale that he thought he'd read good reviews about. So he looked it up and sure enough - it was supposedly a great camera (we got it MUCH cheaper than the price listed on the above link -thanks Costco!).

So we decided after working on the house to drive with his dad and we bought it! So far I'm liking it - the buttons are similar to my last camera so it works out well. So here are a few pics of what we worked on this weekend. We bought baseboards/window/door casing for the family room which was primed and needed a few coats of glossy white topcoat. So I painted them while Brad and Randy sanded and stained a built in bookshelf in our living room & worked on the hutch in the dining room. Both the hutch and bookshelf used to be a yellow-ish blond wood that was pretty hideous. I think they both look great so far! Soon, Brad's dad is bringing down the glass and doors for the hutch and then I can finally put away all my nice wedding china which has been inhabiting every free office space.





And I'm including a picture of the 1/2 bath...I can't remember if I ever posted a pic since we finished it. But now we have our curtain up (thanks to Barb!) and so it's official!


Finally- I found this quick and easy recipe through kraft's site. Brad and I are always both starving by the time he's home from work and we've been trying to find quick and yummy recipes so we can mix it up once in awhile. We really like this one - we do add spicy mustard to the cheese instead of so much mayo.