HOOAH!

Yesterday, Jen, Tammy, Trace Ann and I ran the Army 10 miler. This was my personal goal that I had set for myself and I have to see I'm proud of all four us - we kicked butt! This was by far the biggest race in distance and participation that I have run in to date - 26,000 partcipants ran in this race - so many that the start was in 2 waves. While I know my time was not fast enough to win any prizes (it was 2 hours and 9 minutes or 13 minutes a mile - includes a quick potty break after mile 6), I finished it and never stopped running!

There's so many things to share about this experience - the course was great for the most part - we ran by most all of the DC monuments, landmarks and the Capitol - with lots of water stops along the way to keep hydration. The many Army soldiers and other supporters along the course throwing out their support with "Way to Gos" and "You are Almost There". The Golden Knights and Canadien Army parachuting in before we sang the National Anthem. The 4 Blackhawk helicopters flying low and close to the Pentagon as we sang the National Anthem. The sheer number of runners from all over the US, many wearing tshirts with messages of love for those soldiers they were running for - some alive serving in Iraq or Afghanastan and some who have been killed in action. The soldiers running this race who have lost limbs in combat, but have the amazing fortitude to run a 10 mile race and serve as a reminder of what our soldiers give for our freedom everyday. It's something that I will remember for years.

I think the best part for me was turning that corner at the very end of the race, seeing the finish line and being able to sprint to the finish with Trace Ann. Personal accomplishment aside - it was great to share this with my girlfriends - we've pushed each other and supported each other to get to this race so I would not have wanted to experience this without them.

A tradition of sorts

Today, we are hunkered down waiting for Tropical Storm Hanna to move on out of the area. She's dumping buckets of rain over the entire Washington DC area. While Hanna has not done much damage other than getting everything a little wet, everyone is looking ahead to Hurricane Ike which has become a Category 3 and is projected to hit Cuba and South Florida by Monday. It seems to be a tradition of sorts for the "I" named hurricane to hit on or around Andrew's birthday. The year he was born (2003), Hurricane Isabel hit and came up the Atlantic coast, knocking out power for days in our area (which is not usually threatened by a Hurricane). Fortunately for us, we were all in the hospital with our new little bundle. The next year, Hurricane Ivan hit the west side of Florida around Destin leaving Colin's mom and her husband stranded in Destin and unable to come up to Virginia to celebrate Andrew's first birthday. We've been lucky since then - Irene in 2005 came in August headed up the Atlantic coast but moved out to sea before hitting any part of the US, Issac formed on September 18 (ironic huh?) in 2006 but did not hit any land. Last year, Tropical Storm Ingrid hit the Florida panhandle right around Andrew's birthday. So now here comes Ike and I'm wondering how he's going to help us celebrate this year's birthday?

Day with Daddy

Andrew and Colin had a "day with daddy" today. I think it was a great thing for the two of them to spend the day together doing "boy things" - they went to the golf course and hit golf balls, saw a movie, washed the car, ran around town together. However the food choices for the day were the thing that made me (and the things that Andrew pointed out to me when the returned). Here is the menu of food selections that were made during the day with Daddy.

BREAKFAST - Bowl of Golden Grahams and juice (I fed him breakfast before the two of them left)
LUNCH/SNACK - Smoothie from Robeks; kids meal from movie theatre (includes popcorn, skittles and soda); large root beer while they were hitting golf balls at the golf range; chocolate ice cream after the movie
DINNER - chicken tenders, french fries and root beer at Mimi's Cafe

Can we just say that tomorrow will be a day of detox for my little guy? Colin will probably need it too.

Cherries

Who knew Andrew would love cherries - pitting them and eating them??? The kitchen, Colin and Andrew were covered in cherry juice when Andrew finished pitting this basketful.

Happy 4th of July

We spent the early part of the 4th trying to finish up Andrew's birthday - we're trying to make it more of a big boy bathrooom which means red and blue with baseball theme versus the cute yellow with frogs and dragonflies that have been in the bathroom since he was born. Tonight we went to a friend's house for a party..wow, what a house! She and her husband have a beautiful house with an incredible backyard. We hit the door and Andrew could not put his bathing suit on fast enough and came out of their pool only two times - when it was time to have dinner and when he and Alexa went upstairs to play on the indoor swing set.

Last night night we went to the Sterling Golf Course "Night before the 4th" fireworks show. It's great fun for the adults and the kids. You bring blankets, chairs, coolers and stuff to entertain the kids and set it up on one of the fairways and then let the kids go play. Once it's dark enough, they set off a great fireworks show. Of course, the kids are at the age where there is always drama - someone's feelings were always getting hurt, but they were told to work it out and sometimes that involved a bit of "alone time" for each of them. They each had at least one incident, but I only managed to capture Olivia during her moment. And even though she was having a moment - this is just too cute of a picture not to share

But they all got over their moments and we had a great time - relaxing, enjoying our friends, and the great fireworks show.

Daddy's Little Helper

We've outgrown the lawn mower popper that Andrew (and every other child who has been at our house) has pushed around since he's turned one. So, Andrew has decided to go straight for the real thing when it comes to mowing the lawn - he now helps Daddy. I think this is only going to be fun until it becomes his chore and then, he will be so over mowing the lawn.

And yes, he wears this shirt frequently. Ever since we kept Palmer for Jen and Brandon, Andrew LOVES all dogs and dog related apparel - not necessarily a good thiing since we only have about 3 things total that have a dog on it....cars and baseball will do, but dogs are definitely a favorite.

Same tree, New year

Andrew is definitely bigger this year and he's slowly becoming more daring. Newest daring trick - climbing higher in the tree in our front yard. It's not too terribly high - I can still get my hand on him to keep him from falling out of the tree, but its alot higher than last year. I'm dreading to find out what his next daring feat will be.

9 minute and 46 second mile

Trace Ann and I ran a 5k today at Claude Moore park. Since we are training to be able to finish the Army 10 miler in October, my original plan was to run this race as fast as I could. Then came the rain. For the last two days it has been pouring buckets of rain and this 5k was a trail run through Claude Moore Park. We had lots of puddles to run through and mud to worry about slipping on, so I thought our time was going to be bad, bad, bad. Imagine my surprise when we come down the stretch and the time clock reads 29 minutes!?!?! We crossed the finish line at a little over 30 minutes. Of course, we both looked like we had run through a sprinkler filled with mud and my shoes were completely soaked and DIRTY! But I'm so impressed that we ran that race so fast - my best time up to now has been 31 minutes and that was over a year ago. This running thing will always be a challenge for me, but I'm getting faster and stronger so my times are getting better and that's all I can hope for.

And as a side note, I'm also impressed that I managed to keep myself in line around a Redskins player. Former Redskin Eddie Mason was a special guest at the race (he ran it and then cheered everyone on as they crossed the finish line). And I managed not to make an idiot of myself acting that an insane Redskins fan..thank goodness for small miracles!

Update - check out my disgusting shoes - after this picture these shoes went right into the wash along with all my other clothes from this run.

Andrew's preferred mode of transportation

Colin has been talking about putting the car seat in the Corvette and driving Andrew around for months. It takes a little work because we have to disconnect the airbag fuse, but we both know Andrew will completely go nuts because he loves cars so much. So, today after his Curiousity Zone class, Andrew and Colin washed the corvette, put in the car seat and took out the top since it was so nice. Andrew was totally wild with excitement and I think Colin was excited too - they were gone for over an hour (and made us late for Ashley's birthday party!) I think this is going to be Andrew's preferred mode of transportation this summer.

Creativity is back

I've been in a creative funk for a month. And it's not for lack of projects - I've got a million projects that I want to do or I've started and just cannot managed to get myself motivated to complete - might have had something to do with tax season just ending in the middle of April and it's always insane in my house around that time of year?

Anyways, the creative urge struck again finally and I made a cute little craft storage box for my friend Carolyn's little girl Emma. She turned 3 at the end of February and we missed the birthday celebration because we were away in Florida. Check it out

5k to do again

This morning, Jen and I ran the George Washington Parkway Classic 5k in Alexandria (we'll shoot for the 10 miler next year if we don't die running the Army 10 miler in the fall!). It was a very early morning - Jen was at my house by 6:15 and we were on the road soon there after. Normally, we have someone there to take pictures and give us moral support, but since it was such a hike and it so early, we left the boys and the kids comfortably sleeping in bed. So no pictures to document today's race, but we do have official times (Jen was incognito today as Trace Ann Green).
http://www.gwparkwayclassic.com/RaceResults/08GWPkwy5K.htm
It was a beautiful run - starting off on the George Washington Parkway, running through some of the most pretty parts of Old Town Alexandria ending up down near the Potomac on Canal Street. It reminds me of what I miss most living in the suburbs - the ease of "city" life. Living within walking distance of a variety of things to do any time of day. While, I totally love our house and our life in the 'burbs, I do think we'll be making a road trip down to Alexandria for a visit soon. And I'll definitely put this race on my list of runs to do again.

The talented one in my family

I'm incredibly lucky to have a little sister - Holly. Growing up in a military family, we moved ALOT and the one constant for us was each other. No matter where we moved, I always knew I had someone who would play Barbies with me. She's been living in Boston for the past 12 years and has my active little niece to keep up with which makes getting together tough. This month, she moved back to Virginia. I'm super excited that she is going to be closer to me...I get to spend more face to face time with her AND I get to see my niece.

In additional to moving her entire house from Boston to Virginia this month, she also found time to start a site on Etsy. Check out her site!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5817650

She is truly an amazing artist. My house is filled with "Holly originals" and I've asked her to paint chairs, boxes, picture frames for birthday, baby shower, or wedding gifts. She's currently only got one rocking chair up there right now, but check back often, I'm sure more creations will start to appear as she gets settled in her new digs!

After a long break - I'm back!

Well, after a bit of a break for tax season, I'm back. It was a busy season this year which is both a good and a bad thing. I've got 2 months of adventures that I need to catch everyone up on...so check back often for catch up posts!

A new dog in our future?

Last weekend, we dog-sat Palmer for Jen, Brandon and Alexa while they were at Disney. Andrew talked of nothing else for 2 weeks straight - Palmer was going to sleep in his bed, he was going to walk Palmer and play with Palmer. And we had to go to the pet store on Thursday to pick out a new toy and a bone for Palmer.

Friday, I picked Andrew up from Creme early and we went to go pick up Palmer to bring him to our house. In the car on the way home, Andrew decided that we should take Palmer on a long walk - good idea, right? We get home, get all of Palmer's gear settled in and get ready to go for a walk. Andrew is holding Palmer's leash when I open the garage door. Palmer takes off down the stairs, pulling Andrew who drops his leash (UGH!) - so now Palmer is loose and he's FAST! Fortunately, Palmer stops to investigate some smell in our yard, so I can capture his leash quickly. But man, what a way to start off this adventure!

After our rocky start, things settled down (as much as they can with a dog full of energy and a 4 1/2 year old boy). Andrew and Palmer played ALL DAY Saturday and Sunday except for when Andrew went to his Curiosity Zone class Saturday morning and even then Andrew did not want to go to the class since Palmer could not go with him.

I think Palmer might have been excited to go home on Sunday. He certainly had tons of attention over the weekend from Andrew - but that little guy probably needed a rest at some point and Andrew just did not give him a break! Later, Jen told me that Palmer slept all day Monday - a weekend with Andrew totally wore him out!

Now, is the Wood house going to increase by one with the addition of a puppy? Even though I think Andrew would like the concept of a dog. I don't think the Wood family is ready for a dog - there's a lot of work and attention involved and the current chaos of our household does not lend well to adding a new member - even if they are incredibly cute. However, Palmer can come for a sleepover anytime!

Stamping

I took today off to prepare for my first trip to Get Croppin's Cropbowl http://www.getcroppin.com/. It's a weekend of women gathering at the Dulles Expo to work on their scrapbook projects, take classes from fabulous teachers, hang out with your friends and meet new ones. The event starts on Friday night and runs through Sunday afternoon. My girlfriend, Trace Ann, went last year and invited us all to celebrate her birthday (Saturday), by attending this event all day Saturday.

I had to pack up all my tools, paper and class supplies that I would need for the day along with snacks and soda to help me last the day. Andrew was trying to "help" me get ready tonight and it was really not working so I thought I would try and distract him with some stamps. So I brought out all the cute litte ministampers I bought and the yellow ink (he's a sucker for anything yellow!) He bought it for at least a half an hour...all I needed to finish up and get ready for the big day tomorrow!

Eat your heart out Williams-Sonoma

My girlfriends and I took a cookie and cupcake decoration class at the local Williams Sonoma store last year. By all accounts, the techniques "taught" in the class were definitely made for people who have ALOT of time on their hands. For example, the instructor showed us how to "frame" the cookie with a outline of icing and then "color" the inside of the cookie. The catch here is that you have to wait 4-6 hours between the framing and coloring...who the heck has 4-6 hours to wait to frost cookies?

Fast forward to February...Andrew's class has a Valentines' Day party 2 days in a row and I signed up to bring cookies on Day 1. I totally fast tracked the whole outlining and coloring into 1 1/2 totalwith the help of a 4-year old. Check out how we did! The kids were definitely on a sugar high when I picked Andrew on Wednesday afternoon.

Icy wonderland

Yesterday we got another round of "wintery mix" and in Northern VA, wintery mix equals traffic nightmare. True to form, the road crews did not pretreat the roads and the commute home was a complete mess. It took Colin almost 4 hours to get home from DC. Dulles Toll Road had to be completely shut down so the road crews to get around to treating the roads so you could actually stay on the road.

It did make for a pretty picture of my tree in the front yard though..

Bryce

Last night we went to have dinner at a friend's house. I worked with Andy at a small consulting firm before Andrew was born and we have kept in touch since we both left the company and moved on to other roles. Colin and I love hanging out with Caroline and Andy - we have such a great time and we definitely do not see them enough.

Caroline and Andy have 2 kids - Anna who is 7 going on 17 and Bryce who is almost a year younger than Andrew. We got to Caroline and Andy's house and Andrew sat in Colin's lap for about 2 hot seconds - until Caroline announced that there was a MOONBOUNCE IN THE BASEMENT. Well, that was it...Andrew jumped up and said "Come on, let's go downstairs to the moonbounce" After that, we did not see/hear those two boys unless the came up stairs on their way outside to the trampoline or the little drivable jeep. At 11:00 pm we had to pry Andrew away from playing with Bryce and take him home. The entire way home all he talked about his new friend Bryce and asked when he could play with him again.

Captain Curiosity

This morning Andrew started a class at Curiosity Zone http://www.curiosityzone.com/. Curiosity Zone is a store/science lab for kids and Andrew attended a birthday party there in December. I was totally impressed with what the "teachers" at the birthday party were able to do with 15-20 wild 4 and 5 year olds, so I was interested to see how Andrew would react to a class there. He LOVED it. The theme of this session's class is called Captain Curiosity and it's all about help the armadillo (Captain Curiosity) find a good place for his home. Today, they learned about ants and if the colony would be a good place for Captain Curiosity to build a home. They made ant hats with feelers so they could learn how ants communicate by rubbing their feelers against each other and carried food through tunnels like ants do. Andrew brought home a little book that they will fill up with pages during the class and he will NOT let it go. I cannot wait to see what they do next weekend.

Andrew's version of breakfast

This is what happens when Mommy is all wrapped up in getting organized for a weekend away. Andrew makes himself his own breakfast - pretzels and goldfish. Nutritious way to start the day!

Mommy looks good....

Conversation between Andrew and I after I had showered and gotten dressed today....

A - Wow Mommy, you look very beautiful.

Me - Thank you Andrew

A - I really like your shirt Mommy - you look nice. Now, let me see your tongue.

I guess my tongue did not look as good as the rest of my "look" today.

Finished Project - well almost

I'm proud to announce that we FINALLY finished our dining room walls over the Christmas/New Year's vacation. It took forever, but with the holidays, a job search and a 4 year old, I guess now is better than never, right?

This is the before shot - I hated the blandness of the color and I hated that it was wallpaper!

Now check out our walls!

Next weekend we're hanging curtains and then hanging everything back on the walls. We'll just have to find a rug to finish it off. Now, what to do next......

Happy Birthday Havalynn!

Sick Day

My poor little guy started 2008 off feeling a little under the weather. So I kept him home from school on Wednesday. Maybe he just needed a "mental health" day since he spent the day curled up in his pjs watching movies. Whatever it was, he was fine and back to school on Thursday!

Inspiration

I'm a creature of habit - my intial gut reaction is to do things the same way I've been doing them for years. While I think that makes me very good at my job - it is what I strive to change in my personal life. I believe that I will not grow as an individual if I do continue to push myself to learn and try new things. Fortunately, I have a great network of girlfriends who are always trying new things and encouraging me to try it with them.

Check out what they encouraged me to try or improve in 2007:

Pole dancing as a workout
Running a 10k in 1 hour and 6 minutes - this year I want to run it FASTER
Starting to create scrapbook pages for myself - not just as gifts
Blogging
Taking better pictures
Enjoying life - taking time to enjoy my girlfriends

I know there are many other things that they have encouraged me to try or improve through invitations, words or simply being there for me. I'm thankful that I have such a wonderful group of girlfriends who encourage me, support me, challenge me and inspire me. Wonder what they will inspire me to do in 2008?

Let it Go

Every year I make a resolution and every year it lasts about a month - tops. Last year, a friend of mine picked a phrase that was her mantra of sorts for 2007. I thought it was an interesting alternative to a New Year's resolution and she was able to refer back to it throughout the year while dealing with all the of issues that were thrown at her in 2007.
So for 2008 I've decided I will follow her lead (albeit, a year behind her) and pick a phrase to be my mantra. I've been thinking about it for about 2 weeks now and decided that my phrase for 2008 will be - "Let it Go". For me, I think these words will be good words to live by and refer back to for 2008 - professionally and personally. Here's to letting it go!