Imagination is a beautiful thing

Sadee has an incredible imagination. In fact, I think that is one of her strongest personality traits. She sees something amazing in her mind with almost anything. This week I captured just a couple pics of her in action. The first, her dancing to Moonlight Sonata. The picture doesn't do justice. Her face told the story. She has the EMOTIONAL part of dance down for sure, and this summer her ballet teacher told her she has beautiful feet and lots of potential as a dancer. Sadee was thrilled.



Sadee can design anything. She has an eye for actually really cute stuff from furniture to clothes and jewelery. Lately her favorite thing to do is take MY clothes and make them fit her. That's right, she pins them, adjusts them, making them just perfect for a 6-year-old. Hello. Future designer. I think they look cuter on her "redesigned" than on me.

Money and more money...

So Dave and I have tentatively been thinking about upgrading our vehicle. We like our camry and we LOVE Toyota so we've been pretty content, however, we recently were approached by Dave's parents to buy there Sequoia which will soon be out-of-lease. It's a good deal so it's got us thinking about how to best go about the changing cars thing.

Like I said, we love Toyota. They are the best we think. They retain value like crazy and run FOREVER. So we visited the dealership just to compare and see what was new with them lately.

Here's what the sales guy told me.
"It's an investment." I laughed out-loud. I should've been more polite but I couldn't help my reply of what?? Are you serious?? Cars aren't an investment? They are a have-to item that are anything but an investment.

I know. I'm outspoken. I couldn't help it. That is just silliness. Cars lose money everyday. Investment GROW money everyday.

I hate that line. Bad line.

Anyways, the bottom line is dang, cars are EXPENSIVE!! It boils down to this...

In speaking of the family, my pick is this. The Land Cruiser. Timeless. Such a cool vehicle. BUT, also WAY spendy for a family who teaches school and checks potatoes.


This is what Dave wants. A Crewmax Tundra. I like these too. It is like as big as our Camry in the back. But again, very spendy.



This is the car we will probably get because it is steal of deal. A 2006 Sequoia. It's nice.




But let's be honest. If money was no issue I would buy one of these. A Corvette, a black one, or ANY, and I mean ANY, Ferrari. Those cars are insanely sweet. ( which sidenote, being at the Apple everyday for swimlessons I have noticed that there are a lot of people who drive NICE, very nice cars there. Geez.)_




Any of you had ANY of these vehicles? Want to give us your opinion?

I ran today...I mean REALLY ran

This weekend's race, the Kelly Canyon 1/2 Marathon, has been stressing me out for quite sometime now. I think mostly because I have been gorging on junk food lately and spending less and less time stretching and strengthing my muscles. You know, all the SMART parts of running. In fact, yesterday, the day before a big race, I ate mini powdered donuts, peanut butter M&M's and Cragio's all-you-can eat buffet. THIS WAS NOT THE FOOD OF CHAMPIONS as you will later read.

Morning started out good. I felt well-rested and recovered. I ate toast and a fruit bar for breakfast and even got to ride up to the start with the IF Running Icons. WAY COOL. I did however notice that I was making more trips than normal to the bathroom. Good it's now and not later though... at least I THOUGHT.

We started. The first 3 miles were a screaming downhill (I clocked a 17:20 for the first 5K)followed by a hill out of Heise and then a tortuous dirt, more ROCK, road that was very challenging to keep pace on. It was also around this point, mile 5 or so that I first stopped to use the bathroom.... in the weeds.

In ALL my races this has never happened so I was already bummed to have to take the time to stop for that. That ONE stop. Oh little did I realize...

Kept running.

Mile 7 comes. Oh dear. I have to stop again. Thankfully this time there is a welcoming orange porta potty... and a water station. YES!

I get going again and haven't been running more than 2 miles when I have to stop again in the weeds, and a mile later, AGAIN!!!

People. It was NO FUN! I was dying. My stomach was in such misery.

Finally, Jeff Shadley ran back and found me on that last mile and encouraged me the whole way in for the finish. I was SO HAPPY TO BE DONE!!!

So... I ran a race having the "runs" the whole way....hahaha That was quite the experience.

The stats??

Not a PR today, which I was really hoping for, but even with all the stopping I still snagged 1st place and 2nd overall. Only Jeff, "The Legend" beat me. His time was 15 minutes faster. Unreal. I know.

My time was 1:30:57

I will be doing that one next year though, WITHOUT the pizza gorging the night before. hahaha

Randomness of a Thursday

Today has been very random....

I got a notice to go pick-up a certified letter at the Post Office, which was a notice that I have too many weeds in my yard and will be fined.

HILARIOUS.

I have NO weeds in my lawn in fact. I called to inform the brillant whoever that assessed our yard that they were a little mislead on addresses.

I also found the missing ballet slippers that have been missing for weeks and weeks. I actually found a lot of missing things going through clothes on our basement for the swap tonight.

Sadee asked, for the second time if I would buy her a ukalele. I don't even know hardly what that is so don't ask me why she does. I laughed again.

My mom offered me a piano for which I have NO CLUE where I'd put in our house. Not everyday someone offers you a FREE piano.

I hired a running coach via Indianapolis. I debated for a long time on this and decided I need more direction so here goes nothing...or everything depending on how you look at it. It will be interesting if it will be a good thing or not. The jury is out.

And finally, I read where the REALLY hot actor on the Step Up is married. He married the girl he was in the show with. Bummer... he was mine, along with my girlfriends, secret love.. haha

Whoa There!

I shop often. I've never been good at storing food. I just am no good. BUT people, I will tell you, this week I saw a house that seriously...

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE


had so much food it was almost comical. I mean, I feel like I should give the address out so in case there's a major castastrophe so you'll know where to go.

I saw not only a full fridge and freezer but the following

I walk-in closet downstairs storage with EVERY kind of food you can imagine.
Another fridge outside full
TWO upright freezers full... I MEAN FULL!
A deep freezer full

I had the whoa there face I'm sure, but hello? Why even go to the grocery store?.. which they do often. I can't even afford a deep freezer let alone afford to fill 4 of them!

To there credit they are about the nicest family you'll ever meet and probably would feed anyone, anytime. I know they would.

Firecracker 5K and the 4th of July

The Firecracker 5K went well. Even with a pulled quad I ended up running a pretty good time of 19:36 taking 4th for the women. The winner was a long-distance runner from ISU and a National Steeple Chase competitor who came in at 17:25. FAST!!

Then we spend the morning at the parade with Grandparents. My favorite thing in the parade is the BMX bikes. Aren't those so cool? I can't imagine doing that stuff on a bike.

We also went to the fireworks, which were awesome as always, though it was sort of sad not hearing Wayne's voice.

Happy 4th!

Fun in the Sun

at Ross Park. The lazy river was the hit of the day, and the pictures speak for themselves.

Happy Summer... FINALLY!