We kicked it's ass!

J and I ran in the 32nd Bolder Boulder this weekend. It's a 10K (6.2 Mile) road race that traverses the city streets of beautiful Boulder Colorado and finishes on the 50 yard line of the CU Buffalos football field. It just so happens to be the second largest in the country with nearly 55,000 people that run in it. I can honestly say that I couldn't have imagined what 55,000 people running together looked like until this weekend, but I can tell you that by the time J and I made it up the last hill into the stadium we were both just about done, our legs burned, lungs ached, my feet are covered in blisters, we have both come to the conclusion that we are going to lose some if not all of our toe nails (apparently this happens to runners)...even with all of this. When you cross into a HUGE stadium to thousands of people cheering for you, it elevates you to another place. I have always heard of the "high" that athletes feel when they hear a crowd cheering for them but I have never felt it, until yesterday. As I choked back tears and ran along giving fives to those that would lean into the field, I looked at J and said "this is what it's all about, all the training, all the sweat, all the blood...right here". It was a truly amazing feeling and I can't wait to experience it again.

Here's a picture of the stadium after we got in and were waiting on the professional runners to finish, they go last so the track is clear and everyone can cheer for them. :-)

The best things in life...

The best things in life cannot be seen or tasted but rather felt.

That was the quote that had me crying watching the Today Show this morning. A women who was one of the first to graduate from the Naval Academy is now watching as two of her children are graduating from the academy this weekend one son and one daughter. The amount of pride on her face was indescribable.

Austin is 1 today! Hard to believe that little princess was laying under the Billie Rubin lights in the hospital one year ago today and I was busy fainting. As with everything, times change because after all the sun will rise tomorrow and our only choice is what to do with it.

We have moved her birthday celebration back to next weekend so my folks can be here, they are on their way to Oklahoma to meet the newest edition to our family Miss Liberty Elaine.

Good morning Blogger!

Yet another teenage morning for me, woke up late so I will have to finish up part of my workout this afternoon. D'Oh!

It was the Biggest Loser finale last night, and while I can't talk about it because J hasn't hasn't watched it yet, I can say that I am increasingly scared about what will happen when I get down to my goal weight. It seems as though most of the people from Biggest Loser gain back some of the weight if not all. I have gotten down to my goal weight several times but have only managed to stay there for a few months before the weight starts to creep back on. While swimming yesterday J and I were talking about how great it will be to sleep in, we figure in a year (hopefully less) we will have lost all the weight that we need to, so we won't have to hit the gym at 5am. But in all honesty I think I am stuck getting up for a long time if not forever, which sounds super depressing.

Joe went to City Council yesterday to talk about the new regulations they are attempting for our industry. For anyone that wants to watch him, here is the video link just click on Item 11 and he is one of the first speakers. I am super proud of him for putting so much into this and getting so involved.

http://www.springsgov.com/instantitems/formal/

It is beautiful outside!

It is beautiful outside! I am just waiting on Austin to wake up so I have someone to play with. :-)

I am in the process of a HUGE project at work and can comfortably say that I am not in over my head but I am definitely treading water. Here's to hoping that through my many owed favors and the fact that I don't ever quit, that I will come out on the other side no worse for wear. Speaking of which you wanna know what saying I like SO MUCH, it comes from that country song..."If you're walking through hell just keep on walking because the devil may not even notice you're there." Of course I use this same saying for shady neighborhoods and kiosks in the mall, but I am sure it works when you're in hell too.

I have the Run to the Shrine tomorrow morning at O'Dark Thirty. For those of you that have been to our zoo, it will be a race to the top of the Shrine at the top of the zoo. I am not sure how steep it is but I know that it will be a challenge, sounds like a great workout on a Saturday morning, well and I get to see all the animals. :-)

I got a speeding ticket yesterday. Boooo! It wasn't even like I was hot roding or anything but instead I was rolling (literally I had touched my gas in 500 yards) down Union hill when he clocked me doing 51 in a 40. He jokingly said that he gives everyone 10 miles per hour over on that hill because it's so steep and then starts pulling people over after that. Ahhhh, I'm glad I could be in that elite group. Of course my insurance card was expired too, so that added to the hilarity of the situation while my car nearly ran out of gas waiting on him to write the ticket and Austin was screaming in the back. Now I am stuck going to court....awesome!

I was probably so excited yesterday rolling down Union hill because I was carrying some of my plants for my garden which got planted yesterday while I was stomping around saying Razzle Frazzle Fritz. But now I have a strawberry patch! Yahoo!

Now we're cooking with gas!

Guess who has two thumbs and fixed all of her sprinkler heads yesterday?!?!?

Yeppers, this guy!

As I was leaving for the gym this morning I was pleasantly greeted with my sprinklers gently watering what will become my amazing lawn. Of course Joe instantly starting asking questions about how long and what days I was watering. I kindly reminded him that now that Austin and I run the house it's essentially Thunderdome and we make the rules. For those of you that know Thunderdome you know that it means there are no rules. :-) Yes, we are watering everyday because I want nice grass, heck I have already spread a ton of weed and feed and what not on this lawn not to mention the new seed I am going to put down today (now that my sprinklers work). I am going to be able to cut it up and sell it as sod here before long since it'll be so nice.

Speaking of leaving for the gym this morning...I would have thought it would have gotten easier by now to get up at 5am. I am not sure how people do it. I mean this is ludicrous. I drag my teenage ass out of bed every morning and am genuinely angry about it until I get to the gym.

The Cat Sanctuary!

One last picture that we all took with a real life tiger cub. You can tell how happy I am to be petting him and how cold it was with Austin's red nose.

I cut the suckers head off...

So today was supposed to be a HUGE day here on the ranch. I was actually going to de-winterize (yes you can imagine by the made up word that I was winging it on this one) the sprinklers and let it rip. But while mowing the lawn one last time before the grand unveiling of pressurized water, I chopped one of the sprinkler heads right off with the mower. Of course now I have all new respect for the lawn mower, maybe I should treat that with a more courteous nature. Now I'm back to the drawing board and have to figure out how to replace a sprinkler head, I am sure the instructions are on Google, aren't they all?!?!





Before I put Austin down for her nap I snapped a couple of pictures of her playing with the railroad ties in the sun. She still hates the grass and if she falls down in it screams, but if she stays standing she will tolerate it. Oh yeah and there was a fundraiser out at the Big Cat Sanctuary so we all packed up and headed out there in the rain. Here's some cute pictures from that.

She is completely content if I just let her eat the grass.

She was plucking the grass out of the railroad ties that the weed wacker missed.

She really couldn't get her little walked thing going in the grass but it was worth a try.

Here she is posing a tiger. :-)

Here's one of the real lions out at the sanctuary. They were amazing!