Traditions past down...

When I was a kid, we had a Santa rug that my Mom would place in front of our fireplace. Our dog would lie on it and then we kids would sit on it and wait for Santa to come down the chimney.
So I inherited the rug. Now, it sits in front of my fireplace. We don't have a dog and my kids are too big to sit on it and wait for Santa, but it is a great reminder of past Christmas's with my 4 sisters and Mom and Dad.
Sending Christmas love to Linda, Debi and Peggy. :-)(and remembering Sara, Mom and Dad)

decorating our tree

We buy new ornaments every year, so our tree is pretty crowded after 24 years of marriage... :-) The girls take turns putting the angle on top of the tree. They have to sign the box so we won't forget whose turn it is. :-) This year it was Chelsea's turn!

more Christmas traditions

Christmas cookies!! We love to decorate our cookies. :-)

Christmas traditions

My family is VERY tradition oriented when it comes to Christmas. EVERYTHING has to be done "right" or my girls (and Nigel) get very upset! It gets a little hard with Kirsten being away at school. In the past couple of years she has come home the weekend before finals and we had a chance to put up our tree. Well, this year she is waiting to come home after her finals are over. That means we put up our tree "late". So, Chelsea, Nigel and I picked out the tree without Kirsten this year.... I have mixed emotions about this. My baby is growing up and maybe next year won't even be able to be with us at Christmas!!! :-( Anyway, we got the tree and put lights on it, but we are waiting until she gets home to put the ornaments on. That seemed like a good compromise - since I wanted the tree up sooner. If it was up to me, I would put it up at Thanksgiving and leave it up until after New Years Day. I've never done that before. Does a real tree last that long? Does anyone know???? Would my kids revolt/complain because "that's not how we always do it!"

Dancing in PE

What a blast! All week we have been dancing in PE. The boys and girls together - eewwww! Cooties!!!! :-)We started off with line dancing - pretty easy, not too hard, and there is no touching... :-)
Next came Cotten-eyed Joe - had to touch each other with this one!!! :-0! They did a pretty good job too. There are A LOT of kids that have no rhythm though. That is just sad.
Wednesday we learned a basic Swing Dance. I think they really liked this one - at least the girls did. The music is more upbeat, more fun.
The kids learned Tango and Waltz on Friday. Our school PR person came in and took pictures. Then the yearbook lady came in and took more pictures. So there will be a few pictures published somewhere. :-)
I think most of the kids really had a great time. Of course there are always a few that don't like it, but that happens with any activity: basketball, volleyball, weight lifting, etc...

Here is a picture of me and Coach Schenkel showing off for the kids...

Our refrigerator died...

...so last night, Nigel and I went "Fridge shopping" at Lowes! After two hours we finally decided on the best one AND decided to go ahead and buy a new dishwasher to match. Now, our dishwasher is still in working order, but the screws are starting to fall out and we thought this would be a good time to update it. We bought one that is supposed to be super quiet. We'll see what that means...
Hopefully, next year we can update our stove and microwave to match also. We keep thinking ahead to the day we will sell our house and move on to our next adventure.... :-)

ice baths - the best thing ever!

It has been one month and I am still running! Yay for me! :-) I have learned that I really like running when it is cold - well maybe I should say cool. Like 45 to 50 degrees is an awesome temperature for running. This morning it is in the 30's and I think I will wait until it warms up some before venturing out. :-)
Our workout has changed a bit. On Thursday's we are running stairs instead of hills. I had my first 'stair workout' two days ago. We 'run' (ha) up 24 stories, resting every 6th floor - or in my case - every 3 or 4 floors!!!! As I finally made it to the top floor on my 'first trip up' I was feeling pretty proud of myself and was pretty psyched to get back down so I could try it again. I got down to the 22 floor and got the biggest cramp in my right calf!!! ARG!!!! My buddy I was running with stopped and helped me stretch it out and then we started down again... I got about 3 steps and it cramped again - OW!!! So I told him to continue and I would stretch it some more. So I stretched, went down a couple more stairs - OW!!!!!!!!! What the heck??? This is really painful!!! So I kind of limped down to floor 21 and stretched some more. This thing was NOT going away! So, my pride being hurt also, I made the decision to go down on the elevator - guess what? The doors were locked on floor 21. I would have to hobble down to 20, so that is what I did. By this time my leg was really hurting. I could stretch it out, but as soon as I stepped down a stair, that was it - CRAMP! I made it to floor 20 - locked door. One more time I hobbled down the stairs to floor 19 - still locked door. ARG!! I was beginning to think I would have to ask for help pretty soon. By this time my left leg was starting to 'complain to me' also. Finally at floor 17 I found the door unlocked, found the elevator and made it down to the basement! My running buddy was a little worried about me. After reassuring him that I was OK, he started up on his second trip. Our coach, Mark, had to really stretch me out or I don't think I could have walked out to my car. After he stretched the calf I felt like I could limp out to the car. Just a little embarrassing....
Just to make sure nothing was 'really wrong' with my leg I decided to stop by my school on the way home. We were having a basketball game and I knew our athletic trainer would be there. She took a look at my leg and told me I had a small tear in the muscle, then proceded to put my leg in an ice bath! OMG!!! That was really cold. My leg went numb which is a good thing! :-) It did feel better after that. She gave me some stretching excercises to do and told me to stay on flat surfaces for a few days. Are you kidding? I don't think I could have stepped up - or down anything!!!
So, here it is two days later and my leg feels pretty good. It doesn't even hurt! I guess that ice bath really did the trick! I recommend it to everyone who has a cramp in the future!
I'm still feeling good about my decision to start running with this group. I have met some interesting people and now have people to run with and to keep me motivated. Mark is a good coach, although I don't know how he remembers everyone's name! I don't think I could do that! hahaha!
Happy running everyone!