can your daddy run thirteen miles?

My super-dooper-trooper daddy ran in the Country Music 1/2 Marathon on Saturday & boy am I ever proud of him. He's been training for several months now, but about 3 weeks ago, he strained his left foot, and per the doc's orders... he had to stay off of it (for the most part), until the big race. So... his awesome time of 2 hours 06 minutes (an average of a 9.5 minute mile) was pretty darn good... don't you think!?! He, of course, was not 100% happy with his time, but good grief... it was his first race & he had a bum foot... give yourself a break, daddy.

Our friends, Robin & Tom, also came in from Dallas to run. We had such a great time with them while they were here. We all got to eat lots of carbs (yummm! pasta! my fave!) As with most guys, it took a while for me to trust him, but I came to love Mr. Tom by the end of their stay... he was a pretty nice fella.... not sure what I was worried about in the beginning :o) Robin & Tom also had awesome finishes, too... gosh, I was in studly company this weekend!

On Saturday, the streets were absolutely swamped with runners.... a total of 31,000 to be exact... and I must say I had no trouble picking daddy out from the crowd!... in fact - I'd point to him every few seconds or so & say... "Da, Da!" Mommy kept assuring me that it was not him, but I'd swear I saw his blue shirt a million times :o)

A few of us "non-runners" found a couple of spots along the route to cheer on the team. We saw them around mile 3 & again around mile 8. We also saw Jessica, Jennifer, & Chris trucking it along the trail, too. Whew... it was tiring just watching everyone run. Perhaps I'll join in the fun next year... just as long as someone pushes me in the stroller!

**click once on the slideshow below & then you can hold the cursor over the pics to pause & see captions**

...take it to the finish, daddy!

My daddy is running in Nashville's Country Music 1/2 marathon tomorrow morning with 30,000 other peeps.... 13 miles is quite a task, so I thought I'd give him a few words of encouragement....

moving...schmuving... where's my room?

Golly Gee Wizzo... it's been a busy few days. Over the weekend, we packed up most of our belongings, loaded them onto the humungo trailer, & shipped them off for San Angelo. We also moved some of our things into our transition apartment (only 5 miles or so from our old house). Needless to say - it's been a trying time for all of us!

As if the move was not enough stress alone... my silly 'ole body decided that it was time for me to get a cold. I was a stuffy, snotty, fevery, goupy-eyed girl for most of the weekend. You can probably tell from some of the photos that I've been feeling less that stellar, but thank goodness my Gingi was here for the week to help.... when she was not packing any & everything she could find, she was cuddling with me, playing with me, taking me for walks, feeding me,... the list goes on. She was a life saver! Popi also came to town for the weekend to help us load the trailer & move to the apartment. Boy - he was loading stuff like nobody's business... he oughtta be sore today!!!

After a lot of madness & a little drama, we are moved into our new place & we signed away the keys to our home this afternoon... so I suppose I should thank all of you for your continued thoughts & prayers! I've included just a few of the photos from our move & a few from the last couple of nights in our new home. It's a little cozy "aka: small"....and it's taking me a little while to get used to sleeping here, but... I think after a while, I might adjust & stop giving the parents a hard time... probably just about the time we'll have to pack up & move again! ha!

Oh - and you know how it goes with setting up all of the stuff at a new place. We're still missing out on cable at this point, but as you can see... we got our Internet working, so no fear blog watchers :o) Now can someone tell me how Dancing with the Stars went tonight???

hiding in the empty cabinets

playing with daddy's tools

yes... i'm part monkey

... & do a great impression of a monkey... i'll have to show you soon!

whoops... where'd that piece go??

head 'em up... move 'em out!

As most of you folks know, we're packing up to head to Texas in a couple of months, but we were lucky enough to sell our home quickly... thanks be to God!!!.... so we'll be moving into an apartment this weekend for the last couple of months of our stay in Nashville. Since it will be for such a short time, Mom & dad decided that we needed to go ahead & send most of our things to San Angelo now, and live with the bare minimum in the apartment, so the moving truck arrived yesterday & we'll be packing her up over the next few days.

Mia came over yesterday & brought us some pizza for lunch... the food was yummo & all, but our favorite part of her visit was running around in the G-I-A-G-A-N-T-I-C trailer that's in our driveway. It was still empty, so we got to use it as our playground. We also picked a ton of dandylions (generously spreading the beautiful wealth of weeds for our new owner).


How do you like our cowgirl look??? We found daddy's cowboy hats (that he wears at least one time a century) in the mess of the move & tried them on. I thought I'd show Mia a little Texas fashion.... gidde' up peeps!

eggs, eggs... everywhere!

I've never seen so many eggs in my life... from the very second I was so rudely awaken this morning... there have been eggs as far as my little eyes can see! I guess that big bunny from the mall did decide that I'd been a good enough girl... and he brought me all kinds of goodies for Easter!

After rubbing my eyes & stretching a bit this morning... I realized that outside of my bedroom door, there was a trail of bright eggs into the living room. Oh, boy - was it ever fun to wake up to a million Easter eggs to gather. At the end of the long trail of eggs, I found a basket full of surprises from the big bunny dude.... whoopie! I got to play for just a little while, and then, as I suspected - I had to get all dressed up, just like every Sunday. I put on my poofy bright dress & we headed off to church, where I went to Sunday School with my buddy, Mia.

Soon... church was over & we made our way to Mia's Mimi & Papa's house. Mimi has a fun mini piano & it gave me a chance to show off my pianist skills... loved that mini-grand! There was also tons of yummy food, so Mia & I took a break from playing the piano to chow down. Once again, I was showered with more goodies from Mia & from Mimi... they are just too nice to me - gosh I love it! Mia got me two precious dresses & some fun toys... & Mimi got me all kinds of yummy snacks & a sweet bunny. Whew... and you would think that's all a little tike could handle, huh???... but nope - -

- - we then headed outside for a gigantic Easter egg hunt with Mia's fun cousins. I must say, my skills were not as sharp as they should have been, as I was too fascinated by Mimi's pretty back yard & Mia's super-hunter cousins! Anyhoo... I got myself a few more eggs, although I am not certain that I needed any more... I mean REALLY - - how many eggs does one person need, eh??

Gosh - it was such a wonderful day.... many thanks to the sweet Johnson's & Staudt's for including us in the festivities. As always, they made us feel like part of the family - that's for sure! I would also like to send some Easter love to my family in Texas... wish we could be there with you to celebrate... hope you all had a very blessed day.... miss you!

not too close, big bunny!

Last night, the parentals put me in a dress, loaded me up in the car, & took me to see a big bunny at the mall. It was all very exciting when I saw him from across the store... he HUGE & in a cute yellow outfit... I waved & waved at him. I suppose that my initial excitement made my parents think that I might want to get a closer look, because mom took me right up to shake his hand. Hello!.... did anyone think to ask me if I had any desire to touch that big 'ole bunny? I mean - what did they expect for me to do?... he was ginormous & had ears as tall as me. Wouldn't it freak you out a little bit, too? So - I tried my best to be polite and not scream, but a few whimpers & freaked-out faces slipped out.

I suppose that it was not quite as traumatic as sitting in the big bearded guy's lap a few months back, but I just wonder what all the fascination is with this stuff!?

On the way home... I was being a little goofy in the back seat, so mom snapped some pictures. Seriously - can't a girl just act a little goofy every once in a while without having proof of it plastered on the Internet?? Geez - so, sorry for the not-so-lady-like photos below :o)