Happy Halloween from our house to yours

If you watch 30 Rock (which I sincerely hope you do), you'll get this. If you don't, repent, then watch this:
http://www.nbc.com/30-rock/video/clips/werewolf-bar-mitzvah/172301/


Now, enjoy this little piece of work:

I'm dreaming of a white...Halloween???

This is real time, folks...snow...in Albuquerque,...New...Mexico...on Oct.29th, 2009. If this is any indication of the winter ahead, I'm going to go in to hibernation.

Halloween Cookies

In an effort to be more"cutesy" and "crafty," I took Oliver to the grocery store to pick out some Halloween cookies to decorate for Family Home Evening on Monday night.

Oh, alright, we were already at the store, I saw some cookies and asked Oliver if he wanted to decorate them for Halloween. At least the frosting is homemade!

Anyway, so that's what we did. Oliver has more artistic talent than his Momma. (No surprise there, though, as I'm not hard to one-up in this particular category.)




It's Monday, so naturally, I'm not wearing make-up. Excuse this fact and pay attention to the expertly decorated sugar cookies.

The thing is, they looked a WHOLE lot better than they tasted. Note to self: Smith's sugar cookies are not worth the plastic container they come in.

Remember Sears and Roebuck?

Do you recall ever having heard tales from your parents and/or grandparents of the Sears and Roebuck catalog coming out at Christmas time and them devouring every page, making wish lists, refining those lists, etc., etc.? Well, let me tell you, we've had our very own modern-day Sears and Roebuck experience the past couple days in the form of a Toys R Us catalog. This guy cannot get enough of all the cars, trucks, and trains devilishly calling to him from this calculating toy conglomerate's pages. He has spent hours perusing the toy-filled pages and occasionally will lift his head to ask, "Momma, Daddy, can you pull this movie/car/truck/train for me out of the magzazine (magazine)?"

Can't you just picture that face on the "Let's raise money for orphanages in Africa" commercials?

Marathon: Check

I did it. Do I want to do it again? Ask me in a few days. I didn't set any records, didn't meet my goal time, but, hey, I crossed the finish line at the end of 26.2 miles. Christian was so sweet to meet me at the halfway point with much needed nourishment and encouragement. I bonked at mile 18 (meaning, in essence, that each of my legs felt like they weighed half a ton) and added about 2 minutes to each mile after that. Christian also had the forethought to bring his long board with him so he could wheel me around after the race (like I said, my legs felt like they were made of lead). Mistake at the St. George Marathon: eating too much. Mistake at the Duke City Marathon: eating too little (bowl of Cheerios for breakfast, half a banana, and one Quaker granola bar along the course just doesn't cut it, hence, the bonking). But, at the end of the day, I finished the entire Duke City Marathon.

At mile 26

Proof:) (That's me in the white tank-top.)

My fan club

Fair to the Fiesta

About 3 weeks ago, we went here:


with our friends, Rachel and Rett. They have season tickets to the rodeo at the fair. Let me tell you, nothing beats a RODEO at a STATE FAIR. Three words: belts, buckles, and Wranglers. Somehow these "underground cowboys" become really "cool" for this two-week event in NM and they strut their stuff like they're not afraid to wear it all year long. Anyway, I love rodeos, always have, maybe it's in my blood since my Mom just so happened to be a barrel-racing rodeo queen in her younger years.

This twitterpated duo likes to ride double, whether or not the stroller calls for it. Oliver and Berlynn at the fair.

Next, we went here:

which is one of our favorite events here in Albuquerque. People come from all over the world for this one-week fiesta and it's the largest of its kind. Usually, we go see the mass ascensions (when all the balloons lift in to the air at once), but this year we opted for the special shapes glowdeo and were we ever glad we did. It was awesome.

On the bus on the way to the Balloon Fiesta Park. Oliver hasn't stopped talking about this bus since that night. I mean, look at his face- could he be any more excited???

Overlooking all the special shapes balloons as we drove in to the park.

The announcer would count down and on "1" all the balloonists would light 'em up. It was REALLY cool.

Oliver obviously didn't think it was as cool as we did- he was so scared when the balloons all lit up.

But Amelia loved every second of it.:)

This was Oliver's favorite balloon- the Wells Fargo horse carriage, even though he was convinced it was Thomas the Train.

Oliver loves to line all his cars up in this fashion in different places around the house. In case you're not sure, yes, he's still WAY in to cars.

Playing with Amelia before bed time. She always gets so giggly before night-nights. Check out that tummy love.

Peachtree Cooking

Mmmm good! And there's more where this came from as you'll see when you visit my sisters' and sisters'-in-law blog, Peachtree Cooking. I must explain the reason behind the name in case you haven't already figured it out. We're from Atlanta (a.k.a., "Dirty South") and Georgia is known as the Peach State. We live right next to Peachtree City, hence, "Peachtree Cooking." Enjoy!

P.S.- We've been tagged at christianandrebecca.blogspot.com so stay tuned!

SGM

We got home from St. George last night and it was a long, long drive home. I wasn't able to finish the marathon. I made it to mile 15 and couldn't go any further. I don't know if it was the carb loading the few days before, filling my body with foods that I have never eaten before in my life (think buttermilk banana pancakes- yuk), the foods I ate the morning of the race (also foods I have never eaten before a run), the stress of the event, or the cup of Endurance Gatorade I drank at mile 3 (it has 3x the sodium as regular Gatorade as has been known to make people sick before) which caused an intense burning in my abdomen and chest starting at mile 4. I stopped at mile 13, on the verge of vomiting, fell in to a nurse's arms as she administered oxygen. Paramedics came within a few minutes and urged me to go to the hospital. I wasn't about to be carted off in an ambulance, though. After about 5 minutes on oxygen, I decided to see if I could just make it the 2 more miles to the next nurses station. I barely made it to mile 15. I had nausea, burning in my stomach, abs, chest, lungs, and throat. I sat down on the side of the road and just cried. I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish the marathon. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I had to ask to be shuttled to the finish- the ultimate ride of shame and I cried the whole way down, the rest of the day and even now as I relive the day here on my blog. Anyway, I feel so horrible, so humbled, depressed, anxious, etc. The fact is I'm not a quitter, never have been, and I don't intend on this being the last marathon I [attempt to] run. I've got a few that I'm considering within the next month and a half so stay tuned. As a side note, there were so many nice people who stopped to help me, encouraged me, and made me feel better at the end of the race and I'm so grateful for their support. Congrats to all the people who finished, especially my bro.-in-law, Jim, who trained me and my sisters and gave us advice all along the way. He set a PR of 3:10! Julie, Jessica, and Jenn (my sisters) also all finished with flying colors. Great job!