Not quite a day of rest...

After running the 5K yesterday, I figured I'd do a whole lot of nothing today.

I figured wrong.

I don't know what got me started, but I was outside, just kind of puttering around in the yard. I've noticed some bricks that were hidden by dirt behind the house, between the patio and the firepit area before - I kind of thought that maybe it was a walkway, but I wasn't sure. So I started poking around.

Now, we have already found a ton of bricks around the property. I don't know what the previous owners did with all of them or where they came from, but we've used them for various projects, including the firepit.

Not knowing exactly what I was getting into here, I started to dig.

And then I got the wheelbarrow and started to dig some more.

And then the broom to see exactly what was there.

And then Alex came out and started to help me - until he got bored, then he'd go back inside and out of the heat.

There were parts that were under almost 6" of dirt and grass that had just overtaken it.

By the time I was done, I had removed enough dirt to fill the wheelbarrow twice, and I uncovered an entire walkway made out of bricks. It's uneven in spots, and it's considerably lower than the level of the grass, so I'm going to have to do a LOT of work if I end up keeping it (I debated digging it up and reusing the bricks elsewhere). I have a few ideas in mind for things that I can do with it, but I have to figure out just how much work it's going to take, not to mention how much money.

For now though, I think I'm just going to leave it as is - until I come up with the ideal plan. And a lot of extra time. And win the lottery.

Or at least until after we get back from vacation.

Awesomeness. Lots of it.

The past few days have been crazy insane, but in such a good way.

I went to Oklahoma City and ran a (slightly more than) 5K leg of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on Sunday. It was an amazing experience. The marathon itself is a fundraiser for the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum that honors the victims of the bombing there 20 years ago. With over 25,000 runners, this was by far the biggest race that I've ever participated in, and it was incredible.

 I ran faster than I've ever run before, and amazed myself with what I accomplished that day. I ended my leg of the run with a smile on my face, and didn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

But more on that later....

I got a ton of stuff done outside today. I mowed the grass (always a huge job), finished weeding the huge front flower bed, got some more flowers planted, watered stuff, got some more seedlings transferred out to the garden (hopefully these actually, you know, survive), planted some more flowers, watered stuff....you get the idea.

Baseball season officially started tonight for Daniel. We rode our bikes up to the practice field and on our way back, we got to see some wildlife that we don't get to see very often - at least not sitting still.

But probably the best part of the last few days....

Remember that memorial quilt that I was working on? It was for my friend's mother-in-law, whose husband passed away in January. I was given a bunch of his work shirts and pants to use to make a quilt. My friend gave me a basic pattern idea, we talked about various details, but for the most part I designed it as I went along. I was terrified that the mother-in-law wasn't going to like it.

After we got done running the race in OKC, my team and I went out to eat. We were sitting in the rocking chairs in front of a Cracker Barrel, waiting for our table, and I scrolled through my facebook newsfeed. There I saw it - my friend's post with pictures of her mother-in-law seeing the quilt for the first time. It was all I could do not to burst into tears right then and there.

Right there. It just doesn't get any better than that.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I know I've been nagging on my facebook page, but I'm going to do it here too just in case you missed it. This coming Saturday is the Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis. I am participating in that to raise money for research for a cure for this horrible disease that directly affects our family. If you would like to make a contribution, you can do that here.

But wait! There's more!

In order to encourage people to donate, I've agreed to do a couple of things.

For $1000, I will dye my hair purple (not the wash-out kind, either) AND I will get rid of my ugly rainbow-colored crocs that everyone loves to hate.

Seriously though - please help if you can. It would mean so much to me.

Didn't really expect that...

I was busy at work today, running my butt off while trying to do the work of 3 people (seriously - one who went home sick and one who didn't show up, plus doing my own stuff) when I got called into the back to meet with one of the managers. I was really kind of aggravated at that point, so I really didn't even care if I was getting in trouble - even though I couldn't figure out why that would happen in the 10 seconds that it took me to get back there.

Instead, quite the opposite happened. She handed me a cup of goodies and a certificate - apparently every few months they have a meeting where employees can nominate coworkers who they feel are doing a good job - and I was one of the ones who was picked for this round.

I had to pick either KU or KC Chiefs. It was the lesser of two evils.
But Jared likes KU, so he can have the cup.
Not the candy. Just the cup.

It was still a craptastically busy day, and I wanted to rip my hair out more than once during the 8 hours that I was there - but at least now I have chocolate to show for it.

I have to keep him.

The stockings were hung
'cross the doorway with care....

I kind of hinted around last night about a super secret project that I had finished, but I couldn't say anything about it yet.

Part of what I finished was getting all of our Christmas stockings hung up and ready to go. Since we don't have a fireplace, I have to improvise. In our old house, I hung them down the staircase, but in this house I just go across the doorway between the front rooms instead. It works, and they're up high enough that the kids can't mess around with them without climbing - and for the most part they know better than to do that.

Anyway, I decided that since it appears that The Dude is going to be a permanent fixture - he needed a stocking too.

How's that for cementing a relationship? No marriage, nothing official or on paper or anything like that, but a homemade Christmas stocking instead....

I told him that this means that I have to keep him - because I don't go through all of that work for just anyone.

Hey, it's a step, right?

Not sure if he's more proud of the stocking
or his silly football team.

I'm going to gloat. Deal with it.

I was looking back through some old pictures on my facebook page tonight in order to find some that I wanted to show to The Dude. I found this one of me and Daniel that was taken when we went to Oklahoma City in October, 2009.

And then this one was taken tonight of me and Alex.

Do you see the difference? Do you see it?

Holy crap. I mean, I know that I've lost weight, but it didn't seem like that much. People have told me that they've noticed a difference, but I didn't believe them. But looking at these two pictures tonight just totally stunned me.

I'm almost looking forward to wearing girl clothes on Saturday.

Stop laughing. I said almost.

And yes, we will be taking lots of pictures, and we will get someone to take pictures of us together. And yes, I will be posting them. There will be photographic evidence of me in girl clothes, I promise. I'll only be able to post from my phone while we're gone, but once we get back I'll get the good camera pictures posted too.

Happy birthday to me!

It was a good day. :)

We didn't have anything special planned - I had to do the normal running around getting the kids back and forth to school and all of that fun stuff. Daniel and I stopped by The Dude's house for a little bit this afternoon, and Daniel got bored while he was watching cartoons. The Dude seized the moment and jumped in on the photo op.

We came home after that and I was puttering around, cleaning things up and waiting for The Dude to get here after he got done taking care of some things around his house.

He surprised me when he got here. Like, I had to pick my jaw up off of the ground when I opened the door and saw him standing there holding a rose dressed like this....

I can not wait to see him in his suit for the wedding next weekend!

He did change back into "normal" clothes and we took the kids and went out to eat.

He did attempt to embarrass me and have the staff sing to me, but they didn't want to do it (HA!) - but I did get a free piece of cheesecake for my birthday. Woot! The kids actually behaved themselves fairly well during dinner (amazing) so after we came home I made a cake and we had that before chasing the kids off to bed.

I never thought that anything could top last year's birthday - which was the day that I turned 40 AND the day that I finalized my divorce. That was a great day in that I had finally officially taken my life back. But this has definitely been the best birthday ever.

Grab some tissues!

I don't know if this link will work or not, but I'm trying it....

This is my nephew, Richard, and my niece, Kimberly.

I can't even put into words how proud I am - of both of them.

I haven't seen them or their younger brother for 2 years now, and I miss all of them very much. Seeing this video just reminds me of how important family should be - to everyone.

Rich - thank you for your service. Thank you for choosing to serve our country at an undoubtedly hard time. After seeing you just a few minutes after you were born (and changing more than one of your diapers) I just can't even begin to express how proud I am of the man that you have become.



Edited on 1/12/2012 to change the link to the video....