Breckenridge

In March, Hubbie and I went to Colorado.  Well actually our trip was a Christmas present from my sister and her husband.  I love presents!!  We flew into Denver and then headed up to where they live in Fort Collins.  We spent a day there and then traveled on to Breckenridge for several days of skiing.  

Hubbie and the nephews.  We went on a little walk to the reservoir they live near.  The boys (Hubbie included) spent the time throwing rocks into the water and trying to hit objects in the water. 

Hunter, oldest nephew.

We had a blast in Breckenridge.  We did a lot of skiing.  I was so impressed with how the boys did.  They would get their skis in the pizza position and off they went.  No fear, just went.  They skied what we skied.  If we skied blues, they would ski blues.  We mostly spent our time on the blues.  Hubbie and Rob, my sister's husband, went off and did some black diamonds one day.  Hunter even did a black diamond.  You go Hunter!

 

Here we are! Younger sister on the left, me, Hubbie, Rob, and Older sister.  Hunter and Colton are in the front.

Random moment:  I was hanging out with my younger sister a couple of months ago and she introduced me to some of her friends.  That's not the random or weird thing.  How she introduced me took me back.  She introduced me as the middle sister.  I don't know if I have some kind of complex, but I didn't want to be called the middle sister.  When we were done, I asked her if she could refer to me as something different.  She said, "What should I call you."  I didn't have an answer, but not the middle sister.  Guess my whole life I have never had to think about it.  I have a younger and an older sister.  They on the other hand have either 2 older sisters or 2 younger sister and so to differentiate between us for birth order sakes, I am the middle sister.  Just threw me for a loop.  Random, I know, but hey didn't know if anyone else out there had a weird middle sister complex like me.  

 

Back to skiing.  As with all trips taken with Hubbie, there is a story.  One day, we went off skiing by ourselves.  The group went in for lunch and we went over to another hill/mountain.  As we are riding up the chairlift, Hubbie is surveying the slopes for a good run for us to go down.  We are looking at the map.  So, Hubbie picks this nice long blue run.  From some previous runs earlier, I noticed the one he wanted to do (I thought) had some moguls on them.  Note to reader:  I don't do moguls...They really just make me want to cry or pee in my pants.  So I relay the above thought to Hubbie who assures me there are no moguls.  Off we go.  Lo and behold...moguls.   After several, "Oh no, Oh no, Oh no" moments, I arrived safely at the bottom and without falling down.  Still cannot believe I escaped this alive!

A view from on top of one of the mountains at Breckenridge.  Beautiful!

Thanks family for a great time!

Biscuit

And after months of waiting, here is the anti-climatic introduction of Biscuit.  The delay of this introduction has nothing to do with Biscuit...just the laziness of the blogger.  Where have I been for the last 6 months?  - nowhere.  Just here in Durham living life.  Don't have any excuses other than these photos were on my phone and it has taken me eons to get them on the computer.  So without further ado....Here's Biscuit...

Now, for those of you that are wondering why a non cat lover like myself is introducing a cat.  Keep your hat on.  There is a story as to why this kitty is sitting on our window sill looking in our house.  Biscuit is the cat of the former owners of our house.  The previous owners moved 4 houses down the street - yes, just 4 houses on the same street.  They loved the street but wanted a bigger house.  So, Biscuit I think was confused for awhile.  Where do I live?  This is where I used to live, but then I go to this other house too.  Biscuit is a neighborhood wandering cat.  Meaning he just roams the neighborhood.  Although, he would linger at our house.  He would lay in the sun in our carport.  He would peer into our screen door when the wood door was open.  (I wish I had a picture of that, but I don't.  Biscuit would stand on his hind legs and his little face would pop up.  Really cute and I don't like cats.)  One morning, I was up at 6am doing my morning and I hear this meowing...Yup Biscuit at our door on the deck.  I was like, Biscuit it is 6am what are you doing here? 

Biscuit is also a quick thing.  When we would go in our house, Biscuit would sneak his way in the door.  Next thing we knew he was wandering around like this was his house.  Well, it was until we moved in.  (On a side note:  Biscuit would visit us a lot when Bailey was at my parent's house in November getting treatment.  Now that Puppy is back with us, we don't see Biscuit as much.  But maybe Biscuit has realized that he doesn't live here anymore.)  Once in the house, Hubbie would pick him up, pet him, give him treats.  He really is a cute cat.  

There was an event that happened that formed an unbreakable bond between Hubbie and Biscuit.   I would not have believed it myself but I saw the whole thing with mine own eyes.  One Saturday morning, we are hanging out at the house and Biscuit is on the deck doing his "you guys in there" peer.  Hubbie goes out on the back deck to say hey to Biscuit and give him some lovin'.  I follow.  Not to give lovin', but just to watch (I am allergic to cats - so my love for Biscuit is from afar).  Hubs has Biscuit in arms and then goes to the steps and points at a squirrel.  Hubs tells Biscuit to get the squirrel.  I'm like "yeah right that cat really understands what you are saying".  To my shock and to Hubs delight, Biscuit focuses his gaze on the squirrel and jumps down from his arms and shoots over to where the squirrel is chilling.  Now, there is this chase that is going on in our backyard.  Cat chasing squirrel until squirrel does the safe thing and runs up a tree.  Biscuit remains at the bottom, but is running around the tree making sure he can still see the squirrel.  So, now we have Biscuit lurking around the tree just waiting for the squirrel to return to the ground.  My response...ok, that was pretty cool.  Biscuit chased the squirrel.  Squirrel is now in the tree...game over.  I head back in realizing the action has stopped.  Hubbie hangs outside for a bit longer in hopes the squirrel comes back down.  15-20 minutes have gone by and Biscuit is still at the bottom of the tree.  I call out to Hubbie that he needs to release Biscuit from his mission.  Poor cat.  I don't want him to be under that tree all day.  So Hubbie calls out to Biscuit.  Biscuit comes.  Hubbie picks him up, brings him inside.  Biscuit gets a treat for the entertainment he provided for us.  Hubbie takes him out front and lets him go.  It could not have been more than 5 minutes and I look out the back window under the tree where Biscuit was waiting for the squirrel and I see Biscuit with a squirrel in his mouth.  WHAT!?!  I call Hubbie over to look who is in disbelief but also so giddy with delight that Biscuit got "the squirrel".  Now I don't know if that was the same squirrel he chased up the tree, but who cares...Biscuit killed the squirrel and was playing with it.  Hubbie rushed outside to examine the catch.  Biscuit runs over with his prize and lays it at Hubbie's feet.  Next Biscuit starts flipping it all around like a play toy and then starts gnawing on its head and then proceeds to lay down next to it.  Hubbie is so excited.  He can't believe that Biscuit actually followed through with his command.  Immediately the bond was formed.  He immediately phoned the owners of Biscuit to brag about what just happened.  

Biscuit peering out on the backyard in search of his next victim, I mean squirrel.

Now, we have not had another experience like this since.  I'm okay with that, but am pretty impressed that Biscuit killed the squirrel after Hubbie told him to get it.  I mean what kind of cat does that?  Aren't dogs the give a command type and they obey.  I thought cats were like I do what I want - don't tell me what to do.  Well, that is the Biscuit story.  Hope it was worth the wait!

Recap of the Fall

Here's a not so quick update on our fall.  We've been busy...

Let's start with Labor Day!  We went to Ohio to see Hubbie's Mom and extended family.  While we were there, we went to "The Farm".  Puppy came with us.  What is making ripples in the water you ask...that's Puppy.  He loves the water.  

Just swimming with my stick.  The only way we could get him out of the water,was to throw a stick in and have him fetch and bring it back to us.  If we just called him, he would just keep swimming around.   

Chewing on my stick in the weeds.  He was so funny.  He had to sit in the weeds.  But isn't he just the cutest!  Taking puppy to the farm is always so fun.  The only down side is you have to keep an eye on him.  When you aren't looking, he will head back to the pond to swim around.  Sneaky little dog.  

An update on Puppy.  He is currently at my Mom and Dad's house under surveillance.  He was starting to walk really funny and be so lethargic and so I took him to my parents for him to get looked at.  We found out that he has some compressed discs in his back.  Now he is on some pain meds and being watched to see how he improves.  Life at our house just isn't the same since he has been gone, but extremely thankful that my Dad is a vet!

Mid September.... 

We were invited to go to a UNC football game.  Not just any ole seats at the football game.  We got to sit in the Blue Zone.  Talk about nice!  As you can see they were in the end zone.  Inside there was a buffet that you could eat from the whole game and then outside we got to sit at these seats with cushy blue roller chairs.  Hubbie loved these seats.  Not because of the chairs, but because there were these little tv's every two seats so he got to watch the Auburn game.  He was living the high life.  

Livin the high life!!

Moving on to October...

Hubs got tickets to the Duke Midnight Madness!  Yup, we got to to Cameron Indoor.  What a sight and a fun night!  What a treat to get inside Cameron Indoor too!

The Blue Devils!  Not that we favor any team here in the Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill area.  We are glad to support all three and in fact we have.  Just keep reading.

We took a break from sports and one weekend headed to the NC State Fair with Andy's Dad and his wife.  This was the winning pumpkin and watermelon.  Yup, that does say 522 pounds.  Hello!!!!!  State fairs are always interesting and you can never leave without eating some of the fair food.  We did our share by eating corn dogs and funnel cake. I love funnel cake!!!

Mid-November:

Our friend here in Raleigh invited us to a NC State game.  This game was against Clemson and so we were really hoping NC State would win since Clemson beat Auburn, but we weren't holding our breath since Clemson was favored.  I don't know if we were good luck, but NC State won!!!!  Yeah!  Another bonus - Hubbie was able to do a lifelong dream....  

Yup, he got to cut a pig that had been smokin all day.  

He was so happy that he got to be apart of this!!  He could hardly wait for them to start and then he just moved in.  I first saw him with just a knife in his hand.  I was like how did he get that knife...then he got the tongs and I knew it was all over.  It wasn't even his pig!

The evidence!

That pretty much wraps up our fall.  In between events, we packed - moved - unpacked.  Fought with leaves and acorns.  Still fighting with leaves...we have so many!!!   At one point I thought they might win, but then we got a second wind!  I see a victory in our near future.  

Stay tuned for the story of Biscuit!  Biscuit - who is that?  Well, stay tuned and you will soon find out!

5 Things I'll Miss About Our Apartment!!

We've Moved!! And yes, while that is exciting!, our house is a pile of boxes that seems to grow rather than vanish.  Some of these boxes I haven't opened since I packed them last November when we moved to NC.  Kind of makes you wonder if you really need what is in those boxes....but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  I just can't part with my moose mugs!!  I must have them in my cabinet.  Doesn't matter if I haven't seen them in almost a year. 

I've digressed from the reason I'm writing this blog.  I will miss our little apartment.  So as a goodbye gift to that special abode - here is a list of things I will miss.

1.  Ability to walk across the street to the grocery store.  Talk about convenience!! 
2.  The easy running routes that were accessible from our complex.  I'll miss running in the country club down the street (even though snot rocket man lives there).  Such great sidewalks!  Can't over appreciate a good sidewalk.
3.  The gym at our apartment complex.  Convenience again.
4.  Our covered patio.  You could people watch for hours out there.  And since we were hidden in the trees, you couldn't really see us. 
5.  Some of the people who we have fondly nicknamed:  Bearded Man, Mr. Walker, Hut and Tut, AKC and we will miss seeing the ugliest dog known to the planet:  Guiness.  Oh how we will miss all your snorts.  You truly are the ugliest dog I've ever seen.  I mean that in the best way possible. 

Goodbye Apartment!

Things that happen while running...

I can't believe it!  I really can't believe it.

I was running the other evening.   As I was running, I jumped off the sidewalk to pass this man walking his dog.  As I was passing him, he shot a snot rocket!!!!  I mean right as I'm almost parallel with him boogers being shot out of his nose in my direction.  I'm sure I got hit, but I don't want to think about it.  There isn't that much space between the sidewalk and the road.  My reaction:  I just kept running in disbelief.  I did do a quick glance to see if the fellow knew what he had done, but he didn't seem fazed.   No expression on his face, like "oh I didn't see you there", etc.  Nothing!

So here is my warning to all you runners out there:  BEWARE OF THE SNOT ROCKET SHOOTER!!!   He walks his dog in the evening and he doesn't care.  Just doesn't care if he hits you.  If you see him, quickly run in the opposite direction. 

U2

This post is so overdue, but hey better late than never!

For a Christmas present two years ago, my sister and her husband gave Hubbie and I tickets to see U2 with them in Denver at the Broncos Stadium.  Isn't that such a cool present?  No, I'm not 2 years behind in posting.  Bono, whose real name is Paul (how boring after being called Bono your whole life),  hurt his back the summer we were supposed to see him and so he canceled his tour and scheduled it for the following summer.  So in May, Hubbie and I flew out for the weekend for the concert.  It was a once in a lifetime concert.  I mean when is the next time you will see U2??

Anyway, I took some pictures with my phone, which I will warn you did not come out well.  I think I was just so excited.  My favorite part of the whole night was after the opening band (the frey) finished, they turned off all the lights and all you could see were cell phone lights.  It was pretty neat.

This was their sound booth.  Kind of cool - right?

This is the stage - the spider looking thing.  

It was Mid May in Colorado, so it was kind of chilly.  Fine with my fleeces.  This is Hubbie's new favorite hat.  He got it at the Durham Bull's game (the local AAA baseball team in Durham).  I think it is also his favorite because it is Auburn colors.  

In between the opening band and U2, they would put up all these random facts on the screens.  Some were interesting, some depressing.... Later it made for a really neat screen to see U2.

Not a great photo, but this is when they turned off the lights and all the cell phones popped up.  You can't get the feel from the photo, but it was really spectacular.

Yup, that's them.....U2.

So, that was the trip.  Kudos to my sister and husband for a fabulous Christmas gift.  We are always up for more concerts:)
 

Bailey goes to Camp!!

This week, the place where I work, hosted a day camp for the kids at the Durham Rescue Mission.  They have a shelter for women and children.  The children from the shelter came everyday and we did all kinds of fun things with them including a slip and slide on the last day.  We also taught them about Jesus!   They were so precious and I wanted to take each one of them home!  Another fun thing is I got to bring Bailey to work with me!!

Bailey was a huge hit and such a good dog.  They loved him!!  They hugged on him and combed him, took him on walks and threw the ball to him.  Bailey was so tired at the end of the day.  He would come home and just sleep the whole time. Usually in the mornings when we get up, Bailey will hear us and come into our bedroom.  On the mornings after being at camp, we would have to wake him up.  


Here are some pics!  Enjoy!  

Just adorable!

Puppy getting combed.  He loved this! All the attention!

Strawberry Pickin'

Hubbie and I went Strawberry Picking last weekend at Page Farms (pictured above).   It was only about 4 miles from our house and had tons of strawberries.  I was so impressed!!  Neat and clean and strawberries.  What more can I ask for?? It wasn't crowded either.   Another plus.  Enough people for entertainment and people watching, but no fighting over strawberries, although that would have been fun to watch.  My fav are all the kids with the pink all around their mouth from eating strawberries.  Right before you get your bucket to pick, there is a sign that says, "Tasting allowed, but please do not graze!"  Loved it!

Hubbie picking strawberries.   His favorite part about picking strawberries were the the old timers (his term) that were sitting in their lawn chairs when we pulled up wearing overalls and the old time baseball cap.  They must have been the owners of the farm observing operations.  Anyway, he knew it was going to be a good place after seeing them.

We chose the small bucket.  Those strawberries were so red and so good!  I went to work on Monday and they asked what we did over the weekend.  I told them and they asked what I made with the strawberries.  Much to their sadness, I said just a pie and then gave some to some friends where we ate dinner.  Their response, no jam, no freezing, nothing else.  Jokingly they said, somebody got the LB this weekend.  Unfamiliar with what LB meant, I proceeded to ask what that was.   They said, "Lazy Bug".  Yeah, I didn't feel like doing a lot.  Just wanted to pick and eat and then be done.  So, maybe next year I'll jam it up. I did end up making 2 pies since we had so many strawberries and then we just had some plain sliced .  I tell ya, I forgot how good my grandma's strawberry pie is.  Just yummy!  I'll give you the secret ingredient:  7Up!  Who knew people still drank 7Up, but they still sell it in the stores.

Strawberries, Strawberries, Strawberries.  They were everywhere and so many and so red and beautiful.  Hubbie gets the award for finding the biggest strawberry.  I had a picture, but it didn't turn out.  Too many shadows.

More of the farm.  It was a great day. Not hot, just perfect.  

Stanky Leg

This is hilarious.  Hubbie and I laughed so hard.

I know it is long, but be patient!  If you can't wait, then scroll to around the 2 minute mark. You will be rolling...

Holla to all my Memphis friends...doin the stanky leg!!

Thirteen.One

First and foremost, I must take my hat off to all those who have run a marathon.  You should get a medal (if didn't  - you got cheated...go ask for one)!  After running a half, I can't imagine what running another 13.1 miles would feel like.

Now that I have that out of the way and off my chest, in January, my sister called me and asked me if I wanted to run a half marathon with her in April.  At the time, I didn't have a job and so of course thought it was a great idea!  I had all the time in the world to train - what else was I going to do besides look for a job.  Thus the training began.

I was pretty disciplined in my training and even spent a week training in Colorado to do some altitude training.  Just kidding, that isn't the real reason I went to Colorado.  I was there visiting my sister and still needed to train.  That weekend was a 9 mile run - the hardest run of my life.  My 10 mile run the next week was a piece of cake compared to that. 

I want go give a shout out to Hubbie for a few things regarding the half:

• taking the photos 
• driving us to the start on Sunday morning at 6:45am, when he could have been snoozing
• running the last few miles with me on some of my longer training runs
• And the BIGGEST SACRIFICE OF ALL...missing some of the Masters on Sunday.  We drove back Sunday afternoon and so he missed some of the Masters...you know the tradition unlike any other or whatever their slogan is.  We couldn't even get it on the radio so I was giving him leaderboard updates every ten minutes via my snaz phone.     I do have the best Hubbie!

Here are the photos... 

Yes, the name was the Flying Pirate Half Marathon and was in the Outer Banks, NC.  They even shot off a canon when the race began.  Hubbie was fascinated with that.  Arrrghh you ready to run???

One of the fun things about running in a race are all the people.  I am a huge people watcher and so lots of excitement for me.  A lot of people were dressed as pirates, patch and all.  Some women were wearing black and red tutu's.  Not my preferred running attire, but whatever gets you to the finish line.  

Here we are before the race, walking to the starting line.  Note to all you who want to run a race: the port a potty line will be long...make sure you arrive early if you need to go.  Props again to Hubbie for finding a set of porties without a line.  You da best!!  It was maybe 50 degrees when we began the race.  Chilly...
I think we are wondering what have we gotten ourselves into at this point.  It was too late to back out...they had our money!

Right before the race.  Off went the fleece...go time!!  We were in Corral #2, the black bibs.  I felt like a bunch of cattle in those corrals.  Couldn't they have given it another name.  There were 4 corrals total, so we felt good being in the second one.  Each Corral started a few minutes behind the other, I guess this helps spread out the runners and allows the fasties (what I called anyone wearing a red bib since they were in the first group) room so they wouldn't have to pass so many people.  Don't we look so excited to run 13.1 miles!!!

There we are in the pink!  I have my hands raised.  This is between mile 8 and 9.  My sister now has shed her yellow shirt and has on a pink one too.  We didn't even plan it!  Hubbie and my parents were here to cheer us at this spectator point.

There I am in the pink behind the lady with the blue/turquoise shorts on.  Hubbie said she got in the way at the last second.  The last 3/4 mile was up and down hills on mulch (horrible running surface).  But I really felt great.  On my training runs, there was a hill at the end and so I think that helped prepare me. 

Hey, there'z my peeps!!!  Confession time:  You may be wondering why sister is not in the finish photos with me.  Fact: I am still competitive.  Just when I thought I was doing so well.  The story is there was this lady wearing a pink jacket and earlier on the race, I made my sister speed up so we could pass her...I really wanted to pass her.  Then she passed us later in the race.  She was slowing on the hills and so saw my chance to take her.  I took it and in the meantime left my sister (whose knees were hurting her) so I could beat her.  I did this after I told her I that it was okay that she passed us and I would stay with her.  Horrible sister am I to leave her.  Well, good news is our time difference was only seconds and so way to stay with it SIS and still pleading for forgiveness for leaving.  I just had to beat her....

Yay!!! We are done and have our medals and others goods they give you after the race.  I must confess what I was really looking for was a donut.  I ran a 10 mile race several years ago and they had this big tent full of food at the end and they had Krispy Kreme donuts.  Yummm!!    

Couldn't resist this photo with the pirates. They were the greeters into the after race party.  
We are just missing our bandana and patch!  That one pirate might want to be careful that he doesn't do any drastic moves or he might pop one of 
those buttons.

 Little fact, there were over 2000 runners and i think something like 65% were women.  GO LADIES!!

Well, it was fun!  Thanks again to SIS, Hubbie and my parents!!!  We'll do it again soon!!!!