Marathon weekend

Well my big day has come and gone and I'm still alive. Friday night the kids and I headed over to Depoe Bay where we were renting a house with 5 other runners and their families. It was a great house with 8 rooms, so there was plenty of room for everyone. Brent came over after work. Saturday morning came early, we had to be out of the house by 6:15. We were all a little anxious. This pic is taken right before we left:
Natalie and I started the race doing about a 10 minute mile. We stayed together until about mile 15 before we split up. I felt really good until about mile 19, then I could feel myself losing steam. But I kept running. About mile 22 I was getting really tired and started to run/walk. My goal was to finish in 5 hours and I finished in 5 hours 12 minutes. The last mile I was so tired that I was feeling super emotional, I had a hard time not crying as I crossed the finish line. Here's a link to my "finish line" pictures. (hopefully the link works) Overall it was such a rewarding experience. I'm so glad I did it, and might even consider doing another one...gotta beat that 5 hour mark!
http://aep.exposuremanager.com/g/nm09_55&gallery_page=&gallery_all=&view=1&photo_page=3
This is a pic of what happens when you decide to wear a different sports bra on race day, then the one you'd been wearing while training. As my friend Linae said "Deena, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" Lesson learned.
After the race we went to get Burgers and Milkshakes. For once I felt like I could chow and not feel guilty! That afternoon we went to the beach for a while, but being Oregon, it was cold and windy. So here I am trying to comfort two little girls who were ready to go home.

Malia and Jacob didn't seem to mind the cold!

It was such a fun weekend, spent with great friends. Thanks to everyone who called and emailed to wish me luck, and to my mom and Dad and Sister Kelly for coming to the coast to cheer me on. It meant a lot to me!

Complete randomness

The boys are obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED with these little toys called bakugan's. Every cent that they earn goes towards buying these little things. I don't get it?
These are my latest two vinyl projects for the house. Can you have too much vinyl? Some may say yes, I say no, as long as it's done tastefully. :) I was bored and decided to make a few things. The birds are in the kids' bathroom and the tree branch (may have to click on it, it's a little dark) is in the kitchen. Makes me want to do more!

Three more days until the big marathon, I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it!
We had an offer made on our house, but it fell through when we countered. And no you didn't miss anything, we do not have a house on the market. These were some people we knew...I have such mixed feelings about moving. Makes me realize how much I love our house and friends here!

While the boys are away the girls shall play

Father/son campout was last Friday. The boys look forward to this every year and so do I. They were so excited and thanks to the photography skills of my hubby I think we really captured their excitement here!

Okay all kidding aside, they did have a great time. I think this picture was taken 30 seconds after they woke up. It was a short trip but they were able to fit in S'mores and some baseball, What more could they want?
Friday night I attempted my 20 mile run, the longest I run before the actual marathon next week. In case I haven't mentioned this before....that's REALLY far and my body is just now recovering. As soon as I got home I took the girls to subway and then we went home to watch "The spiderwick Chronicles" We ended up making it halfway before it got too scary for Malia, so we turned it off and read some books in bed. The next morning we had doughnuts and hot chocolate for breakfast. At 10:30 was the iris festival parade. Our towns annual festival, the kids love the parade, but mostly the candy thrown to them during the parade. It was a great weekend with lots of sun!
I just had to throw this pic in because I thought it was cute. I found Claire cuddling this doll and singing to it, she sure can be cute when she's not screaming.

Writing festivities

Last Thursday we attended a writing festival for Malia. One child was picked from each grade, at each school in the district. Malia was chosen for the 2nd grade at her school. She was so excited to go get her award. It was fun to go see the book that she had written "The Beatuful Angel" (I guess the teacher doesn't spellcheck for them) The awards part of the night was loonng. They had a guest author speak, as well as having 10 children from the district read there books to the audience. After that they gave each award individually. Luckily our school was towards the front of the alphabetical line-up and we made a mad dash for the door as soon as Malia received her award. We are proud of her, good job Malia!

The best day of the year!

Mother's day is my favorite day of the year. I share my birthday with Malia, which I love, but I think of it more as "her" day now. So mother's day is my day and I have to say I had a great one this year.
First off, Brent was in charge of the gifts for all of the women in our ward this year. He wanted to do something different, so I suggested dipping oreos. I found some online that were crazy expensive and decided that we should do it ourselves. Brent offered the help of the men in the ward but I said NO WAY, I want these to look nice. So I dipped 400 oreos, Brent helped me bag and tie them. It really didn't take too long and they were yummy! You can't go wrong with dipped oreos, unless your my crazy friend K who doesn't like oreos, weird. (jk, you know i love you!) Ignore my slightly sunburned face in this pic.

The leftovers...

My mother's day was awesome. Brent and the kids made me breakfast in bed. Crepes with 3 different fillings, sausage and pineapple. It was really good! Brent got me a new mp3 player so I don't have to borrow his anymore, a new workout tshirt and a few other small things. The kids made me fun art projects at school. I told the kids that my only wish for mother's day was to have no fighting. That lasted until about 9am, oh well. Besides teaching my 5 year olds at church, I had no other responsibilites. Brent made lunch, dinner and a dessert. (caramel brownies!) He put the kids to bed and cleaned up the kitchen. It really was the perfect mother's day. Thanks Brent!

just one of those days

Ever have those mornings where you wake up to this?
and this
and this
and this...........
When is mother's day again????

Future author?

Our school district is having an "Excellence in Writing" awards night. One child is chose from each grade level at each school Malia's writing was chosen out of all three second grade classes at her school. She will get to attend the awards banquet where she'll be given an award (and a free book... her favorite part). She really does have a talent for writing and we love listening to the fun storylines that she comes up with. Congratulations Malia!