"Triplets" and the Contagious Laugh...

Ryan's Aunt Wendy bought the girls matching outfits. Madisen and Avery love wearing the same things and ask almost everyday if they can wear the same thing. So of course I had to take a few pictures...

Just Plain Cute

I don't know what it is about these pictures of Emily but they make me smile. A lot.

I don't know if it's the crazy Alfalfa hair, the cute little grin, the way she is sitting in the chair, or her funny outfit but something is definitely just plain cute about it...

Whatever it is, she makes one cute, "white trash" baby! ;)

We did it!

Emily and I in the hotel room before the race...ALL smiles. We were a little nervous and very excited! Or, maybe very nervous and a little excited... I can't quite remember. ;)

A few minutes before the race was about to start...STILL smiling. (We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into).And we're off!



Emily and I stayed together until about mile 6. I was the first to hit a "wall" and had to slow down. She kept going strong until mile 8 or 9 she said and hit her "wall".

(Our husbands found us around mile 10 and took these pictures.)
What was I thinking here?
Probably wondering if anyone had a coffin I could just lie down in.


I also remember thinking this around mile 7...


Emily crossing the finish line. She did it in 2 hours 17 minutes! Great job Emily!

Me about to cross the finish line, about 6 minutes after Emily...I could never catch back up to Emily after I lost her.

My first Half Marathon Medal!
Smiling even though my whole body hurt. BAD.
Ryan supported me through all my training and came to cheer me on. Thanks babe!
Emily and I exhausted yet so glad to have finished. We didn't finish in the time we wanted to, but we did pretty good considering the race course. We had no idea there were going to be so many hills! There was one hill that I am sure most people had to walk up because it was so steep and long. And my legs were burning after trying to run up it. Emily and I told somebody that this was our first half marathon and they told us that this course was one of the toughest. Oh?? Great.

And I am sorry for posting this nasty picture of my feet, but I just had to. Really. My poor feet took a beating and they deserve to be recognized for their efforts. Blistered, bruised, cracked, broken nails and dried blood. Nasty! It's hard to tell from this picture but my big toe on my left foot was so bruised deep inside that Ryan had to preform surgery. This was his first toe surgery so he got some hands on experience for the real world someday. (Your welcome honey). He had to use a paper clip, and heat to dig a whole through my nail to drain the blood and water from it. Yeah...it killed. And I screamed.

Now, who wants to do a FULL marathon with me?!

Anyone?

Hello??

Ahhh....don't let the description and picture of my feet scare you.
haha! :)

Half Marathon Map

A few of my favorite foods...

For breakfast or for a snack, I sometimes have a cup of low-fat cottage cheese with fresh blueberries, strawberries and peaches. SOOOO good! You are drooling at the mouth, aren't you?

I love love LOVE a good salad. In my opinion there is nothing better than that. It makes you feel good, it tastes good and it's good for you. I eat a salad almost everyday whether that be for lunch or dinner. Most of the time this is what I make for lunch:

Love at first sight, right??

I buy a big bag of grilled chicken strips at Costco that usually lasts me almost a month. Before I prepare my fresh salad and cut everything up I grill up about 3 ounces of chicken strips.

With the chicken grilling, I add my lettuce, cut up red peppers(sometimes orange), broccoli, sliced red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, sometimes an avocado, and sometimes dried blueberries or a few dried cranberries. And then I top it with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. For dressing I add about 2 tablespoons of poppy seed dressing. I have tried about 5 poppy seed dressings, because I wanted to find one that was low in calories yet not disgusting to MY taste buds.

This dressing was definitely my favorite as far as flavor goes, but

LiteHouse makes a pretty good poppy seed dressing that is half the fat and calories and tastes similar to the Brianna's brand.


Now obviously you can add whatever you want to YOUR salad. I just wanted to share my specialty salad with you. My husband loves it and even my girls love it. I like to see them eating healthy foods along with me.



What is your favorite snack or salad?

Burn and Run

I only wish it was that easy, to stand on a scale all day and see the pounds just shed off! Wouldn't that be nice? Unfortunately getting good results takes hard work. I love the feeling I get when I have accomplished something hard. Someone made the comment that it's really not about the number on the scale but more about body fat, and inches. Which is totally true! I completely agree with that. But I also just want to get down to where I was when I felt my best. So I am going to keep burning those calories out of me.

Training for this half marathon has been so empowering. It feels great when I get done with a long run...well, besides the sore knees, bad back, and blistered feet ;). Last Friday, Emily and I did our 10 mile run and I have never ran that far ever. We are trying to set a goal to stay around 10 minutes a mile. Some miles we do about 9 minutes, other miles are more like 12 minutes as we climb up hills. This morning we ran 3 miles and did it in 28 minutes... I am hoping we can keep that pace through the whole race on Saturday. I am also hoping I (as in, ME ) survives it. hehe.

Wish us luck!