Happy Halloween...

Halloween was another success. 6 bags of candy later I can ensure my rear will be a little larger by the end of the week. :)

Carving...

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins. I dreaded it a little this year because we had a total of 8 and the kids wanted to carve all of them. It went pretty smoothly though. I hate messes and I tried super hard to enjoy it and not focus on the grime. Scroll down and you will see Christian's pumpkin is sick with the flu. yuck.

Halee insisted we bake the pumpkin seeds. A little butter and salt and yum...they were so good.

I love our family traditions.

Cops and robbers...

So several months back my friend's Tammy and Alexis and I decided to do a runaway pumpkin half marathon. Tammy decided last minute that we would indeed be dressing up. Lex decided against it but try as I might, Tammy was determined. And as usual she did a great job coming up with ideas. So I ended up being the "cop" and her the Robber. She had on her back the saying "run like you stole something." It was pretty fantastic.

The run itself was full of rain. We arrived at 8:30am and were basically drenched long before the race even began at 9am. That was discouraging I must admit because I was so darn cold.

Once we started our bodies heated up and we kept a good pace of 9 minute miles or lower. The miles flew by and having Tammy there to keep me motivated helped tremendously. Alexis sped ahead of us and that helped motivate us too. Just having her in our sights until mile 11 kept us at a good pace. Eventually the speedy Gonzales was gone. I am proud of her though. She did excellent. And she trained hard.

Tammy and I have been running but not training as we should. But luckily our bodies have not forgotten the running skills we have acquired and we averaged a 8:52 pace. Better than we planned for. I must say though, when I finished i felt lightheaded and thought I might pass out. Never had that happen before. The rain got to me I think.

All in all it was a great time, and happy to have another run under my belt.

Dancing queen...

Grace started ballet this year and is doing such a beautiful job. Normally parents can't come watch but once every few months they let us come get a sneak peek. I loved every minute of it. Grace totally seemed in her element. I hope she will always love dance, because it really does suit her.

My little Mowgli...

A friend of mine passed along her daughter's snow boots to Scarlett. Is it snowing? No. But Scarlett insists on wearing them anywhere and everywhere we go. Scarlett has skinny legs.  But when she wears the big clod hopper boots, she becomes even skinnier. She makes me laugh and smile.

Blood and guts and a little cellulite too...

We had our annual Halloween game night with several of our friends over the weekend. This year Chris and I decided to get a little gory. Originally I was going to be the patient, and he the Doctor. The kids suggested it would be much more fun to have Chris be an evil Doctor and I the victim. He played the part well. Me? I think I look a little too cheerful for a bloody victim. I need to work on my acting skills.

Once upon a time I had this vision of Mark dressed as Richard Simmons. (I loved watching him as a kid.) I suggested it to my friend Tammy and she said she didn't think he would agree to do it. But in the end, he went for it. I had no idea how well he would play the part. Tammy is amazing at recreating people and adds her own personal touches. She made the best aerobic gooroo ever. Don't you love the added cellulite? I never would have thought of that.

 In my opinion, it takes a real man to dress like Richard Simmons. Good job Mark.

 You didn't know there were actually three victims with this costume? I actually stabbed Chris and Tammy several times over the course of 4 hours. It's hard to take note to stand back when you have a knife sticking out of your head.

Again, I must say....I love Halloween. One of most favorite Holidays ever.

I'm a bad girl...

I did something bad...I did something very bad. I did something I swore I would never do. I ran in the dark. Alone. I run in the dark all the time. But alone? Never.

The news leaked to my family when I called my sister huffing and puffing while running asking her to stay on the phone with me to keep me from getting too freaked out. She was a great comfort as she described to me that a young woman was kidnapped less than 60 miles from where I live. Thanks for that bit of news.

In my family (brother sisters, mom and dad) we are not humans. We are bees and when something happens that shouldn't, we buzz.

Thankfully the queen bee's (mom and dad) and all the working bees told me like it was and I am vowing to never run in the dark alone, again.

I love my bee family. They are pretty darn special.