Call me crazy

Call me crazy, but i've signed up for a marathon. Okay, you can stop laughing now.

Some friends of mine talked me into it. I spent a couple of weeks deliberating. Going back and forth between "there's NO way" and "maybe it's possible?" I figure the worst that could happen is I have to walk. (Although, as I was looking for a picture for this post I came across an article of a young man that died after crossing the marathon finishing line. But there were some water issues, heat issues...i'll try to just pretend I didn't see that article.) So we've been training for a few weeks. So far i'm up to running 15/16 miles a week. In a few months it will be up to 35 a week. I do my weekly runs on my own, and then we run together on the weekends. I'm slower than molasses, and I feel a bit like the hippo from Madagascar when I run, but I get it done. It's been do-able so far but I have to admit i'm SCARED for what's to come. I still don't understand why people would WANT to run marathons regularly, but I'm looking forward (kind of)to the challenge and just being able to say i've done it! Wish me luck....i'll need it.

Our Cruise

We just returned from our cruise to cabo. We had been planning this trip for so long, it's hard
to believe that it's over. We went with most of Brent's siblings and his mom. We had a great time. The weather could have been better, but we had fun despite that. This is a picture from the top of the boat.

Our first night on the boat we did a little karoake. We had a blast. We'll never let mom forget her rendition of "funkytown."
In this picture the words weren't working to Shania Twains "any man of mine." The lady spent the whole time trying to get the words to show up, but I have to say we did pretty well without them.
We spent some time on the boat doing this...soaking in whatever sun we could find.
This is a picture of us leaving Cabo. We had a great day in Cabo. The weather was perfect! We started the morning shopping at the flea markets. After lunch we split up and half of us went to lover's beach to go snorkeling, the other half went to another beach to go parasailing. I went with the parasailing group. I had been parasailing before, so I was happy to find a lounge chair and relax. Brent LOVED parasailing! We swam a bit in the ocean, played frisbee and just enjoyed the great weather.

The boys had a great time playing ping pong. We also spent our time on the boat playing basketball, eating, mini golf (very windy though), eating, going to vegas style shows, eating, playing cards, and eating. I have to say my favorite thing was playing cards with everyone. I also splurged on a way overpriced spa treatment. It was heavenly! One night our "show" was a hypnotist. So Blayre, Logan and myself all went up to give it a try. We were all unsuccessful. Although Logan tried to fake it longer than Blayre and I. We were the only two, out of 10 people to return to our seats. We had a great time laughing at Logan though. (They didn't allow us to take pictures of the shows.)
This was Brents favorite thing we did the whole trip. In ensenda we rented ATV's. They let you ride on the roads with them their. It was pretty funny to see a caravan of 5 ATV's zooming down the road. We found some cool sand dunes at the beach and the boys were in heaven.
This is a restaurant that was recommended by a local. It was a bit of an adventure trying to find it, but it was well worth the wait. The service and food were great.
The boys dropped Julia, Mom and I off at the boat, Annie and Sara went shopping and the boys and blayre took off on the ATV's. Brent somehow wound up on the highway (no one else was crazy enough to follow.:) But he turned around quickly and they found their way up to the top of a hill where they had a great view of Ensenada.
This is our waiter Santama and his wife. They served us our meal every night. They were from Indonesia (i hope i got that right) and had an 18 month old at home, while they worked on the ship for months at a time. They were so nice and our meal together every night was something I looked forward to. Not necessarily the food, but the company.
I just noticed that I had the same sweatshirt on in every single picture. I didn't even bring a coat, thinking it would be hot, so I ended up wearing the same thing most of the trip.

I found myself a little sick the last day or two of the trip. I wore a seasickness patch, but it didn't do much. That was the only downside to the trip. Overall it was so fun, we made so many fun memories and I would do it again in a heartbeat! Thanks everyone!

I have to give a HUGE thanks to my sister Deyce for coming to watch the kids. She went from one to five and i'm sure that wasn't easy. We are SO grateful and owe her big time! Thanks Deyce

Cute Cole

One of my favorite Christmas gifts was a book that Brent had made that contained
all of our blog posts. It made me look at blogging differently. I need to think of it more as a journal. Anyway, I thought I would write something that Cole said today that I thought was funny. I had sent him up to his room to pick up "20 things"
He cleans better if he knows how many things to pick up. So after he came down I looked at him and said, "so, did you pick up 20 things?" He looked at me seriously and said, "I picked up 1, 2 skip a few 100." I'm sure that really meant he picked up 2 things, but I thought it was so darn cute.

Every Sunday we have a special treat. Really it's just our way of bribing our kids into being good during church. If a child is given three warnings then they lose their treat. We try to make it something really yummy so they'll not want to lose it. Today I told Brent he was in charge of the dessert. Sometimes a girl just needs a break, ya know? So he decided to make apple pie. He was very precise in all of his measurements and slicing. He didn't toss it all together like I usually do. Anyway, it was THE BEST apple pie ever. Here's the conversation we had:
Brent: This pie is sooo good!
me: I know, it's better than mine.
Brent: I know...you should blog about this pie!
me: YOU should blog about your pie.
Brent: No, that would be bragging and I don't want to brag...

So there you have it, it's been requested that I do the bragging, so I will. Let it be know that Brent makes the best apple pie ever and I hereby defer all pie baking to him!

Yummy recipe!

I made this last night, served with homemade rolls, soooo good. Even better the second day!
Italian sausage and tortellini soup

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (I used mild ground sausage)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups beef broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
4 large tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/2 tablespoon packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
8 ounces fresh tortellini pasta (I just used the dry tortellini in pasta aisle)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (Didn't use this, but threw in some chopped spinach)


DIRECTIONS
In a 5 quart Dutch oven, brown sausage. Remove sausage and drain, reserving 1 tablespoon of the drippings.
Saute onions and garlic in drippings. Stir in beef broth, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano, tomato sauce, and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
Skim fat from the soup. Stir in zucchini and parsley. Simmer covered for 30 minutes. Add tortellini during the last 10 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese on top of each serving.

Why do I torture myself so?

We've been talking about getting new countertops for quite awhile now. We picked some out that we liked about a year ago. So we finally decided it was time to do it. But I couldn't stop at that could I? Our cabinets were in really bad shape, really worn down. So we debated refinishing them or painting them. I've always loved white cabinets. Brent was not sold on the idea...but I can be pretty persuasive. So we decided to just go for it. And let me tell you it has been a looongg 7 days. I've been up until 1:00, 2:00, (even 3:00 one night) trying to finish this kitchen. I used an oil based paint and it took forever to dry which didn't help things. Brent put up crown moulding which I love and it turned out great! Here's a before picture:

After we got the countertops on I was not happy with how the tile looked against it. So I decided to paint the tile. I googled painting tile and just went for it. I don't LOVE the tile and if we stay here maybe we'll change it eventually, but for now it's fine.

I do love how much brighter it is. I decided to use my cutter and make some Kitchen Decor...I looked all morning at a few different stores for some signs/decorations to put in the kitchen. I want some red containers to put on the counter. i could not find anything...the few that I did like were way overpriced. So I decided to do my own wall art. I'm still keeping my eye out for some red cannisters and i'll probably do red curtains. Overall I think it turned out really good, and i'm looking forward to some more sleep! ( Julia, should my sign say "too" instead of "to"?) I just noticed that....

Frustrated

Here's my problem. Over Christmas break a girl ordered a sign from me. I had made some stuff for her in the past and have had no problems. The problem now is that the check she gave me bounced. So the bank withdrew the $20 that I had cashed as well as charging me a $20 processing fee. So I called the girl and she said no problem, she would bring by the money. Well she didn't show, twice. On my third attempt to reach her I got voicemail. It's been about 3-4 weeks now and I haven't heard from her. So...do I continue to try and reach her. Do I just eat the $40? I'm so frustrated, $40 is a lot of money and I feel cheated. So what would you do?? Any advice?