Just a minute of my time...

Project life

and other things have lost some zest since the loss of my camera.  I haven't even heard the "professional" diagnosis, let alone how long its gonna take... I'm missing it dearly, but the cost to replace it isn't even a thought right now!  So I will try and keep up with life and project life with my Nikon point and shoot that I got in 06 before our NYC trip.

We came home to find this sweet arrangement on our front porch!

Since the wedding I've been trying to get back into the swing of things at home.  With kids doctor appointments, breakfast with friends and some shopping with my sister to fill some of my days, I've also been getting back to reading more.  

My house is being over run with my book collection and while I plan to still purchase the occasional hard bound book I really want some type of electronic reader and I'm still debating between the kindle and ipad.  The kindle I can do right now, the ipad I still need to save for.   The kindle lets you highlight words and look them up and add your own text, but doesn't have a light and I read a lot at night.  The ipad is backlit, can get the same books as kindle and does more than just store books, so that debate still continues....

As for ending the month of July, I hurt my back after lifting a case of water and thought I'd be done running for July, however today I ran 6 miles today which took my miles to 506 in 7 months!

So now I'll go back to missing my camera and stalking the mailbox as I await the verdict on what seems to be the problem and how long till it will be fixed

Friday Fill Ins

 

1And...here we go! 

1. I'm going to breakfast.

2. Good books need to have adventure and be daring.

3. Perhaps today you can make it a point smile at someone today.

4. Trying new things is a true adventurer’s spirit.

5. Compassion is learned through pain

6. Be nice... no matter how difficult.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to organize my scraproom, tomorrow my plans include farmers market and getting back to running and Sunday, I want to get caught up on projects both indoors and outdoors! 

Reaching my goal

 

You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face.
--Gatorade

and so yesterday was the big day... not a lot of fanfare, in fact when I finished running I was the only one in the gym.  But you couldn't of wiped that smile off my face.  I did it, I ran 500 miles in 7 months and it feels great!  I gave myself a year and did it in just over half.  I can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of the year.  With another half marathon already registered for, there's no telling where I may run?

 

 January 2010

July 2010 

Editing pictures

This weekend I went to Michigan for my girlfriends daughter's wedding.  She wanted me to take pictures and luckily I was able to borrow Trish's camera since mine broke the week before the wedding!

It was a beautiful wedding at the beach and my girlfriend Debbie left no detail undone!  So many little things she thought of. Like the centerpiece at the kids table was buckets and shovels for the kids.

 

 And the decorations and favors were adorable!

 The wedding was on the beach where they had music playing grilling food, water and lemonade and an arbor made by her father.

My sister Debbie helped group the people while I took the pictures

  and our girlfriend Kimmy from Michigan also took pictures, however her husband took this one for us!

we had such a great time!  And I took 700 plus pictures of which I am still editing!

  
 these two were adorable!

 as were Jen and Bill!

Thursday Thirteen and high school friends

It's been 30 years since we met.  Lisa and I came from different areas and Sue and Diane came from a private school.  But somehow in 9th grade we all connected.

We stayed in contact all these years, were in each others weddings and when Diane moved to Tennessee, we drove out after she had her first child. Friendship... we've been through it all together. Some of us have lost one or more of our parents, a child, a sibling,  we were always there for each other.

And so it was like a high school reunion when we all got together again to celebrate Sue's youngest graduation from high school. Funny how you can be busy and not talk for months and catch up like it was yesterday!

 

 we didn't even plan to all wear black

Thirteen reasons to have girlfriends...

1. You can call them anytime
2. They accept you for who you are
3. They support your decisions in life
4. They love your kids like they are they're own
5. They make you laugh when you need to laugh
6. They make you a better person
7. Always there to celebrate the good times and support during the bad
8. They plan girlfriend getaways with you
9. Shopping is always better with girlfriends!
10. They give you the advice you need to hear
11. A good friend is cheaper than therapy
12. A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.  ~Arnold Glasow
13. The language of friendship is not words but meanings.  ~Henry David Thoreau
    

You can find more Thursday Thirteen here

Retreat weekend!

This past weekend our house was filled with 25 girls on and off throughout the entire weekend.  It was Chelsea's sorority retreat weekend and the girls truly were a joy to be around! They did everything on their own, cooking, cleaning, putting up tents and planning of their meetings. The only thing they needed help with was having Zach help them build a fire.  I told them from the beginning I would be around to take pictures and Chelsea had decorated acrylic frames for each of the girls to take home a picture, along with some chocolate covered popcorn.

 

 
 each time there would be a group of them together I would grab them for a picture

gathering a group around the pool

They were the sweetest girls that were so fun to be around! They loved the dog...we thought he might even leave with a couple of them, and after seeing my scraproom I have a feeling I'll be seeing them again real soon!   

Running

So I think its fair to say that I'm addicted to running!  It's crazy to think, this one time smoker would one day be running half marathons and setting goals to push myself a little further each time I go out, but there is something about it that I miss on the days I don't run.  If I hear certain songs that are on my playlist while driving in the car, I want to run!  

Add to that addiction a little gadget that tracks your miles and tells you how far you've gone with encouraging words as your run farther, faster or longer.  That would be my Nike & Ipod sport kit, another little motivator for someone who already loves running!  I love hearing congratulations, you've reached your goal of 5 miles (or whatever the chosen distance I pick).  I can also set training goals for half marathons and it will give me a schedule on when to run and how far.  

But the latest fun thing was this challenge that Cathy Z started at Nike for the month of July...

 

Here it is July 16th and I'm the 2nd to reach 50 miles in July!  Now it wasn't a race to see who could run it the fastest, but a challenge to do it in the month and since I already had a goal to reach 500 miles run by the end of July, I was well on my way to tracking those miles! 

 I have 36 miles to cover in the next 15 days... can I do it?

Team up Thursday

So we took a few weeks off with vacations and all, but Jill and I are back with our team up thursday. This week we did "me time"  I love how this week our pictures are total opposites.  One of kicking back and enjoying some wine and the other of getting out and running, both of which I enjoy doing.

 

 

Ipad

Have you seen it?  I have and I think I'm in love... though I'm still trying to be skeptical about it? Would I use it enough to justify the purchase?

I mostly want it for books, but the fact that it can do so many other things is a plus!  I was forever waiting on the price of the kindle to come down, but now this makes me question the kindle? My house is being taken over by all the books I have, and not that I won't still want to purchase a few books, I think this will be a great addition for my reading library alone.

So I will continue to read reviews and save my pennies and hopefully after enough reviews and enough pennies I will be the proud owner of my own IPAD

Work in Progress kit

This month I got my layouts done and then took off on vacation and never got them posted here until finally tonight!

 

 I had a blast working with this kit! 

 the colors were so fun

 more childhood pics!  Me, my sister and Uncle

and this mini I put together before leaving for our trip

  
 now I just need to finish it up!