Our Bet

Awhile back, I mentioned something about a little bet that Wade and I had going. I didn't say much more, but you've probably noticed the little tickers of people running on the right hand side. (Yes, Wade's the little black man.) In order to get back in shape, we challenged each other to see who could reach 100 miles first. Whoever won would get $100 to spend on anything the winner wanted.

I quickly decided that since he was already such a great runner, it wasn't fair for it to be equal, so we cut mine in half- I only had to run 50 miles to his 100.

And basically, he's doing awesome, while I'm still loathing it. He is trying to convince me that running outside is much better than running on a treadmill at the Y, but I have yet to get out there this spring and do it.

My goal is to run the 20K in the Dam to Dam on June 5th.

I've already practically given up on the $100. (He runs 3-4 miles at a time, while I only run 1-2. Bleh. Not a good way to start, I know...) But I'm serious about this upcoming race!

I'll try to update you all on how my progress is going throughout this spring. My first goal is to change the way I talk. I always tell people how much I "hate to run. HATE IT."  And I always just figured if I ran enough, eventually I would start to like it, then that's how I would talk. But I'm thinking the talk has to come first. (Kinda like when people say in passing, "Hey, Liz how are ya?!" I almost always say, "Fabulous!" even if I'm having a bad day. If I say it enough times, I start to believe it.)

Anyway, just some of my thoughts on running. How do you get motivated to run? Please help! I need lots of suggestions!! :)

"The greatest pleasure in life, is doing the things people say we cannot do."

- Walter Bagehot

Run, Forrest Wade, Ruuuuun!!!

As far as helping out around the house and being productive, Wade was pretty much worthless this weekend. And he had a good reason to be. On Saturday morning, he ran his first half marathon! (A marathon is 26 miles, so a half marathon would be 13.1 miles.)

He's been training for it for months now, and he said he enjoyed it. His goal was to run it in less than 2 hours. He ended up placing 171 out of 493 with a time of 1:54, averaging 8:47 per mile. The winner, a 27 year old, clocked in at 1:09, which would be, get this.... 5:16 per mile!

Waiting for Daddy. R&B loved clapping for all the runners. :)

Still waiting... I was getting worried that he had already gone by.

There he is.......and there he goes! (He looks alone, but there were actually other runners!)After the race. Great job, babe!

Watching all those in-shape runners made me want to be a runner, too. Only that I hate to run. So I admire Wade a ton for this accomplishment. It was so funny watching the kids' reactions as he ran by us and waved. They were like, "Hey, there's dad! But why is he running away from us?" Not sure if he'll keep doing more races in the future, but either way, we are reeeeaaallly proud of him for doing this one!

Our Basement Renovation

I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, but never gave you the full scoop on our latest little adventure. With all of the kids I have in the house during the day (only 4, but it seems like more) we needed a little bit more space where kids could play without waking each other up during naps.

Our basement was already half-way finished, but definitely not "kid-friendly" so my handy husband convinced me he could put up drywall and a ceiling very easily (and in only 2 weeks! ;) Oh, Husband.) I'm mad at myself for forgetting to take before pics, but here's what he's been up to so far.

Please overlook the boxes covered up w/ the sheet. It's all my teaching stuff that I can't bring myself to throw away yet. Marilyn, help me!! ;)

Where the washer and dryer will go.The egress window that Wade put in (pretty impressive!) and where the desk and computer will be, plus hopefully a little craft area!And this one just because they're cute. :)

Wade's Bio-Family

For those of you who may not know, Wade was adopted. It's never been that big of deal to him or something he's spent a lot of time and energy focusing on. He's got an amazing family (both parents and extended family) so to him, there was never a need to go looking for his biological mother, he had all the family he ever needed and wanted.

But a couple of months ago, his curiosity was sparked while watching the TV show The Locater, which finds family members who've been seperated. After recieving the paperwork from his mom, it only took about 20 minutes to find his biological mother, her current married name, where she lived, and who her kids are. (The internets kind of creepy, huh!) So back in June, we met with her, her husband and her son. They are wonderful people, and it was interesting to hear the details of how his life began.

Last weekend, Wade's parents got to meet Wade's bio-mom (as Wade calls her. I think it makes her sound like a robot.) and family. He's got a half brother and sister, who are 14 and 20. It was a fun afternoon just hanging out and eating delicious prime rib. You'll have to ask Wade or his parents about all the details from their point of view, since I was kind of a bystander in all of this. God clearly had a plan for Wade. And it's amazing to think about how drastically different my life would be if she would have made a different choice 26 years ago. Pretty amazing, if you ask me!

Wade's Guitar Lessons

For his birthday this year, I got Wade some guitar lessons and he just had his second one last night. We've had a guitar for awhile (given to us from a friend) but neither of us knew how to play it. He'd always mentioned that it'd be cool to know how to play, and I always wanted a guy to write me love songs and play them for me on his guitar. Under the moonlight. With a glass of wine in my hand..... So anyway.....I got him some lessons! ;)

He loves them so far. He's working on learning the song Simple Man, which is aparently an old school rock song by Lynyrd Skynyrd? Hmm... Never heard of it. I had in mind him serenading me with songs by artists like Howie Day, Jack Johnson, Joshua Radin.....

I'm excited for him. I could only afford 4, so I hope he's a fast learner!

Happy 26th Birthday Sweet Husband

You're pretty awesome.

I hope you had a good day.

We love you. :)

Las Vegas Roadtrip!

It has taken me a full week to recover/unpack/rest from our oh-so-fabulous Vegas vacation last week. It must have hit Wade extra hard since he's been home sick from work the past 2 days, feeling weak and achy. Hope he feels better soon!

Anyway, here's how our trip went!

Monday:
We took off in the Jeep before the sun came up and the kiddos were left in the wonderful care of Wade's parents. We drove through Nebraska and stayed with family friends that night in Fort Collins, CO. We were equipped with tons of movies, books, magazines, CDs and snacks.

Tuesday:

We drove through the Rockies, eating lunch in Vail, and then down into Utah, stopping for a little bit at the San Rafael Swell. Driving through Utah was like driving on another planet. Amazing! We stayed the night in St. George, UT.

Wednesday:

Helloooo Las Vegas! We got in early, but couldn't check into our hotel yet (The luxurious Imperial Palace, at $38 bucks a night, located right in the middle of the strip :) ) so we walked around and ate lunch, before the wedding at 4:30. Wade was a groomsman and had to be there early, so I laid by the pool in 85 degree weather and read my book. The wedding was short and sweet, and very cute. We had supper at Belagio's buffet ($30 per person, but we had crab legs, sushi and lots of other wonderful stuff!). We spent the rest of the night hanging out w/ the bride and groom, playing the slots and roulette-BEST GAME EVER! We discovered our lucky number is 19 and overall we won about $150. Not a ton, but at least we didn't lose any!

"Carrie Underwood" was singing at our hotel's casino. Also notice Alice Cooper and one of the Blues Brothers as dealers :)

The Strip

After the wedding at Caeser's Palace

Congrats Jason and Brandi!

I just won $60 bucks!

Thursday:
We had a late morning helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. We actually landed down in the canyon and had champagne and a quick lunch. SO COOL!!!! Later that day, we checked out the light show on Fremont Street and then got to see a family friend perform as a showgirl in the show Jubilee at Bally's. Brooke, you are amazing and the show was fantastic!!

At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River behind us.

The Fremont Street Experience

Friday:

Good-bye Las Vegas! We headed north through Utah. This was by far our most boring day. We drove through Provo, and finally stopped for pizza at about 11pm. It was definitely a challege to combine Wade's desire to get from point A to point B quickly and efficiently with my love of taking our time and sightseeing along the way. If we'd traveled my way, our trip would have taken 3 weeks to complete, but if we'd done it his way, we would have missed all the spontaneous fun! We compliment each other quite well :)

This doubled as lunch the next day. SO yummy!

Saturday:

To save some time (and money) we drove through the night, up through Wyoming, stopping at 3am at Chugwater, WY, population 244. We then stayed at a truck stop and slept in the Jeep for a few hours before stopping in Alliance, NE to eat breakfast and check out Carhenge (it was super foggy). We spent the rest of the day traveling through the sandhills of Nebraska. They were really cool, and much better than taking I-80! We couldn't wait to get home to our babies, and arrived back home around 9pm.

This is me "chugging" a water bottle. :)

We saw about 50 trains on this road!

In numbers...

3,500 miles

7 states

6 days

5 McDonald's dollar menu stops

4 calls home to check on the kiddos

3 Monster energy drinks that Wade drank (just on the way out)

2 nights in Vegas

and only 1 fight!

Sledding

This weekend Reese and her daddy went sledding! I don't have any pics of her actually going down the hill (since I stayed home w/ the little guy) but here she is in all her winter gear! Too cute :)

Now that we are in the middle of the 2s, she is saying the funniest things! Here's a few from recently.

Me: Hey, honey, you look like your starting to get tired.
Reese: No, Mommy, I'm not tired, I'm happy!
(she says this one ALL the time)

Me: Did you have a good nap?
Reese: Yeah! Can we watch Ariel now? *dissappointed look* Oh, after Oprah?
(oops, must have said that one before!)

Me: Reese! You look gorgeous with that dress on!
Reese: No, mommy, I'm not gorgeous, I'm Reesey.
(We're learning new words from the Fancy Nancy books ;)

Reese: Daddy, look at my finger.
Wade: Oh no, what happened?
Reese: Mommy hurt me.
(umm....what!?!?!?)

I'm Still A Guy

I'm Still A Guy Lyrics

Ha! This song is soo Wade! I heard it the other day and laughed out loud b/c it's too cute. I wanted you all to hear it, EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE COUNTRY! I'll change the song soon, don't worry :)

Our First Anniversary!

We were married on March 10th, 2007- a whole year ago! It's been an interesting, fun, exciting year!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It takes a few seconds to load, so just hold your horses!

We seriously love being married. Coming from a girl who didn't think it would happen to her, it's the best thing in the world. It's awesome having your buddy with you all the time, for the rest of your life. Wade is an AWESOME cook (he does 90% of the cooking at our house!), so goofy and fun to be around, upbeat and optimistic, the best cuddler, and an amazing dad to Reese. She and I are so lucky, and I wish every girl in the world could experience what we have.

Us as a couple:
We're not into PDA.
We both love Carlos and any Mexican food.
We like being outdoors, especially in WARM weather!
We love Reese more than anything on this planet.
We're both outgoing and love hanging out w/ our own friends.
We're not into sappy cards from Halmark.
We both truly believe that we were strong, interesting people before we knew each other, but we found someone who enriches our life to make it better, not complete it.
We want to flip houses someday.
We call each other Lovie (and Reese is Little Lovie)
We are really, really happy.

Reese's First Trick or Treating

Last year was Reese's first Halloween, but this was the first year that she went trick or treating. Since it was so cold, we decided not to go house to house, but instead we went to Cedar Falls Main Street to get some quick candy. When Wade got home, we went to Crossroads Mall in Cedar Falls.

She quickly got the hang of it, and was asking for candy from anyone she saw.

Momma and the little ladybug!

Please, can I have some of my candy????


Too cute!