Holiday Projects

My oh, so exciting, list!

1. Finish the t-shirt quilt I started for C last holiday season...I just need to put the back on and then "quilt" it. I think I will try to do this in the mornings when I am up and he is still sleeping so it will be a surprise.
2. Finish the blanket that I am making for Craig's mom for xmas...it is about 1/4 of the way so I have some time. Might work on that this weekend.
3. Clean out my clothes and for goodness sake, get rid of all those sweaters that have 1,000 picks on them that I will not wear because of it or the ones that have shrunk or the pants my big butt will no longer fit into.
4. Go through all the pictures from my last 2 (maybe 3) years' worth of vacations. I need to sort through them all and do something with them..that will probably lead to a project I have wanted to do for a while which is to make a book for each year. Hmmm.
5. Make a CD for poor Morgan of the pictures from Chicago from 2009 that I thought I already made her but obviously didn't. Sad.
6. Clean out my pantries. While looking to make sure I had all the ingredients that I needed for this Thanksgiving I noticed that I had brown sugar, only it was in brick form...not the kind where you can break it back out but it was actually almost melted together.
7. Just a general cleaning of my two rooms...they are a mess!

Now off to make some pumpkin pancakes and wake up C...yes, he is still sleeping at 11am...I have been up for 3.5hrs...I don't know how he does it!

Update and New Blog

Well, no secret that I am horrible at keeping up this blog lately. I am not sure why...not like I was writing super exciting stuff before but somehow I just don't see to have much time for it. Here are a few tidbits.

--training for another half marathon. It is in Phoenix in January and I am going to visit my friend Rachel (some of you might remember her, ,she interned with me at Deloitte and was from New Orleans). She lives in Phoenix now and though we have had a couple dinners when I was in New Orleans for work, it will be nice to spend a few days with her.

--Work has finally settled down. I think that I have told most of you about it but long story short, they were re-organizing and I wasn't sure what they were doing with my job. They announced last Friday that they were done with Home Office (YAY). No raises this year but at least I have a job. There was also a possible opening in the Ohio market but it looks like that might be filled with the other home office employee who lives in this market. I like my job so I am fine with it, but it would have been a good step up.

--we are staying here for Thanksgiving and I am thankful that I get to just relax that day and cook all day.

--We are going to Atlanta for xmas but due to the fact that we are sleeping on a bed on the floor, only have four channels on the TV and a lot of projects here, we are probably not going to be there that long.

Other than that, I am going to make a list of all the projects that I have not completed this year and try to get them all done over the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas). I will have to make a list of those but I will save that for another post.

Finally, I have started a new blog. I have really enjoyed making hats this year. I am super sad that the photography business hasn't taken off here and I feel like I have tried just about everything I can think of. I guess I will just be patient. In the meantime, I have been able to crochet and knit more and I really like it so I am going to try to make a hat a day (or at least post one per day even if I make 2 one day and none the other days). You can find my new blog HERE and I would love for you to add it to your google reader :-) I am still trying to find a format that works. It is sort of hard until you get a few posts in there.

That is about it...not too much going on but I have a feeling that with all the free time over the holidays I will have more time to post :-)

Our Weekend with Ariyana

I am sure you guys got your fill on fb, but just in case, here is a recap and some pics.

I started to get really nervous about the visit because my sister said that Ariyana was going through a really whiney phase. I wasn't really sure what to expect. She was definitely more whiney than in the past but she was good overall. The toughest part about the weekend was that she is going through this phase where half the time she wants to be the baby (I think because Maddox gets a lot of attention at home) and the other half of the time she literally pitches a fit if you try to do something for her. It can be the same thing though both times so it is hard to know when it will strike. I think that this was hardest on Craig because he liked to show her things and sometimes he would do too much and she would get mad. The other tough part was the sheer number of kid videos we watched...Cars - 5 times, Princess and the Frog - 3 times, Monsters, Inc -3 times, Bug's Life - 1 time. I normally would not allow a child to watch that much TV but we had 0 toys for her here. We had played on taking her to the toy store to get her a bday present but then it never happened.

At the end of the weekend and after I got home last night, I asked Craig if we could still have kids after spending a weekend with her and he said yes so I count that as a win :-) She also told her parents that she had a lot of fun :-) It was hard to tell at times because I felt like I had to stop her from doing a lot of things just so she wouldn't go home with a gash in her head.

Anyway, here is the weekend in pics (when I could get the camera out).Getting ready to leave her house :-) We had to make one stop on the way to the airport for her to potty but other than that it was smooth sailing with no traffic (in the HOV lane).

On the "train" from the rental car return place. I think she was more excited about this train and the train the airport than she was about the plane.
Watching the planes come in...she was very excited by them backing out and taking off and woulc announce which ones were "big" ones and which ones looked like ours.
On the plane.
She looks so tiny in the seat!
Silly girl!
She insisted that I hold her hand once the plane started moving....so sweet.
Eating her gummies after we took off because she was such a good girl in the airport.
I had promised her cookies on the plane but they didn't give them out on our flight...uh oh. The flight attendant for first class heard me explain that we would get some when we landed and she said she had some in first class. She came back with one of those airsick bags with water, an apple, a banana, cookies, and a twix in it. She even put the napkin like tissue paper. It was super sweet of her and what did Ariyana eat? The apple and banana :-)
Playing with the seatbelt, which I told her not to do...and sure enough, yesterday on the way home she smashed her finger in it...poor thing. When she did it I couldn't resist saying "didn't I tell you that would happen" and she said "yes, but it hurts".
At the children's discovery museum...SO MUCH BETTER than Atlanta. Unfortunately she wasn't intested in everything because she hadn't had a nap but then she asked to go back the next day so I guess she had fun...I will never figure kids out.
After being inside on Saturday because it was so cold, I really wanted to go outside on Sunday...we decided to do some yardwork...I figured that she would play in the leaves (which she did) but then she wanted to help...I promise we were not putting her to work. It was funny because all she did was spread them around. Luckily after a little while she wanted to go with Craig to dump them in the woods and I could rake.
After nap time we went to a playground nearby. She had been asking to swing since we got in the car in GA so I figured it was another good activity for outside. This is a weird contraption that picks up sand and dumps it. I should have taken video as she bossed C around. It was hilarious!
Again, little miss independent wanted to "do it herself" and she wanted to pull the suitcase. There wasn't that much in there so it wasn't that heavy but I think that this picture is hilarious...she just looks beat down.
And finally, stickers are stickers, no matter what they say and these helped to entertain her for a while as we waited on Grandma to come get her at the airport.

Rental Car Keys

I know that most of you saw the posts on FB about my key fiasco but I wanted to tell you the whole story.

Often when we go on vacation we go to the middle of nowhere to parks during the day and last Friday was no exception. We went to Rialto Beach (among other places but this is where the action went down). It is in Olympic National Park...about 60miles from Port Angeles and about 12 miles from Forks (for all you Twilight fans, those towns both suck...at least in the non peak season). Anyway, we are at Rialto Beach, it starts to rain so we go to the car to wait it out, then it stops so Craig goes to take some pictures while I make us lunch. We eat lunch and are talking about whether we are going to go see a waterfall (C's pick) or to a winery (my pick). He decides we need to see the beach at Rialto over where you can get down to the water. I am not sure how familiar you guys are with the beaches on the coast but they are the cliff kind...no sand, just lots (and I mean LOTS) of trees that have been washed up on shore and rocks as the "sand". You have to climb over the trees to get to the water. Craig was down on the beach walking around and acting like a kid but I was cold so I was up on the bank, past the trees. He kept asking me to come down but I really didn't want to...finally I felt bad and went down. He was walking toward the waves and showing me how the water didn't come up high (on this beach you can't just run back in the sand because the trees are in the way so I didn't want the water to get me all wet). We walk down, first wave stops about 2ft from us....then he says the famous words "we didn't challenge it enough" so he pulls me closer to the raging waves. Yeah, so a HUGE one comes and 12 inches of water are rushing toward us...and we are backpedalling and I fall IN THE WATER! ASS SOAKED, PANTS SOAKED, MELISSA PISSED. I was so mad because it was exactly what I didn't want to happen...it was also extremely scary because the waves are really powerful and you can't run on the rocks and there are trees piled 6ft high that you can smash into so I was also freaked out a bit. When the wave went back Craig was calming me down and I was still mad about being wet (we do have a picture). Finally he said to go to the car and turn on the heat. I reach in my jacket pocket to get the keys and realize they are not there. AWESOME. Now what? We are literally in the middle of nowhere, no cell service, 3 miles to the ranger station (and what would they do) and 12 miles to the nearest town. At first I was thinking that there was no way I lost them. We looked EVERYWHERE. I am panicking. I found a girl and her dad that were leaving the area and asked if they had a phone that worked (to call Hertz) and they said that they didn't but that the would go to the Ranger station and call them. Thanks! They didn't offer to have me ride with. After about 10 mins they came back and said they talked to the ranger and he could send someone out in about an hour. She also said that he gave her the name of a tow truck company and she could call that. I thanked her and asked her to call and she left. Everything of ours was locked in the car...camera gear (thousands of dollars worth), purse, phones, everything. Finally C noticed that the driver's window was cracked (an annoying thing he does that usually drives me crazy because it sends a cold chill to my neck, but I will never complain again) and he unlocked the car (which set off the alarm which we couldn't turn off ...just in case you are wondering, they only go off for about 2-3 mins and then it stops). At least we got our stuff out.

Next a Twilight Tour bus pulled up...I thought that maybe someone would have a phone on there that worked but no luck. The driver lived in Forks and said he would take us back there and that there were 3 tow truck companies in town and we could call. Problem was that it had been 25 mins since the last tow truck was called, if they were called. So, we are trying to decide whether we should split up and how to figure out what company was called to see if they were coming or what. The bus was loading up when the tow truck showed up and we were able to get it towed. We had to go toward the town and get gas, switch drivers and then head to Port Angeles, at least there we had a hotel and clothes (I am still soaked and we are working on about 2 hrs now). On the way I call hertz and see what they can do...basically we have to have the car towed to the Seattle airport and then they can tow us another car out (or we can ride in with the two truck driver (2.5hrs) and get a car). Hmm, those didn't seem like options...thanks anyway. So, I called the only car rental place I saw in town...budget. Yuck. whatever, they had a car and said we had to pay a $150 (plus the $150 to rent the car) to drop it off in Seattle. When we get to the hotel in Port Angeles, the tow truck cost $586...yep, not a typo. Then, when I called Hertz from the hotel they said it would be another $402 to tow the car to Seattle and $200 to replace the key. So, in case you didn't keep up...$586+$300+402+200+$1,486 and we were right back where we started the day except the new rental car completely sucked and didn't have power anything. I was so mad. I can think of a hell of a lot of things I would rather spend $1400 on. It really bothered me to "waste" that money. C pointed out that we were really in a bad spot and we were lucky to be safe with relatively little trouble (4hrs total). I know he is right but you guys know how I am about saving money and it just killed me to have to shell out almost $1K for two tow trucks. Needless to say, we will be joining AAA asap...then it would have only been $250 for the tows (plus you get hotel discounts and stuff and we always stay at hotels in the middle of nowhere which are the ones that give the AAA discounts).

So, that is the whole story. When we got back to the hotel and I was a little calmer (and warmer, it took a shower and several hours), Craig gave me a big hug and said that he was glad that I wasn't upset that it was all his fault. He said he thought I was going to be mad at him because he made me go down to the water. I couldn't be mad though...it wasn't really his fault...he was just trying to be playful and the keys were in my pocket and it was an accident. Who would have ever thought that they would fall out??? The only thing I can figure out is that I had my hand in my pocket (since it was cold) and when I was falling I pulled it out to brace myself and they came out too. The whole thing sucked but hopefully we have had our share of bad luck for a while (C also got a speeding ticket :-() I am sort of jaded by being out in the middle of nowhere though so I am sort of hoping for a more city oriented trip next time...

Heavyweight!

I feel like I need to blog a little more. My facebook status updates seem to be all about running, biking or traveling. That is mostly what I do so I guess it makes sense but it seems sort of sad to me.

In other news, it is starting to get really cool at nights in Dayton. I love the weather right now and I look forward to the next month of the leaves changing and cool nights but a part of me really dreads the cold that I know is just around the corner. We have had a really dry summer...it really hasn't rained at all (it did back in the spring every time I was going to run a 5k) and it has been sort of nice (minus the whole drought side effects). I am really hoping that will carry over into winter and we will have less snow this year. I wouldn't mind a little but I don't want to set any records. UGH.

I think that I am finally settling in here in Dayton...I know that seems silly when I have lived here for almost a year and a half but I think that it takes a good two years to really feel like it isn't just a temporary thing. I at least have made a couple friends now that I can hang out with. That makes a huge difference. I think that the travel is starting to get old again. Actually, I like the travel but I miss being home. It is very hard to have both. I think that I will be at home for most of Oct and Nov so that should be nice but you never know. There are a ton of shake ups in my company right now...seems like I post this at least once a year. I don't think that my job is in any danger but they are changing a lot of things and that always makes me nervous. Time will tell!

Not much else going on...I am not THAT sore from the half marathon on Saturday which is good. I think that I will be almost normal tomorrow...just in time to start 30 day shred! I kept saying I was going to do it and tomorrow is the day...

Sort of random, I have discovered this new thing that Ali told me about. Did you know that a lot of races (or at least the ones here) have heavyweight divisions? If you are over 150lbs (160lbs for some) then you can compete in the heavyweight race. I don't know why I think that this is funny but it is. I mean 150 is not exactly heavyweight depending on your height and/or your muscle build. As a matter of a fact, I think that might be the top healthy weight for my height (depending on what chart you look at anyway). And, do you have to weigh in at the race or something to qualify? I am not sure but I think it is funny since you could still run a perfectly good race at those weights.

Half Marathon Recap

Leslie and I before the race. Leslie went to Ohio State and is a DG. I met her through the DG alum group here. I only found out she was running the race two weeks ago...too bad because we could have trained together since we have the same pace. We ran the whole race together :-).

Ali and I before the race, Ali is my normal partner in crime here in Dayton. She plays A LOT of soccer and plays in the same league as Craig on Thursdays. Leslie and I after the game (and after the 30 min search for the car...notice my shoes are already off and the flip flops are on!)
Ali and I after the race...she said we had to bite our medals because she "sees them do it all the time on the Olympics" HA!


I did it, I survived! I would lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little disappointed at my time. I really wanted to average out 11min miles and my max that I wanted to complete it in was 2:30. My time was 2:35 :-( There were 2247 women that finished and I was #1202, not too bad but I am definitely looking forward to improving my time. I think this will be a race that I do every year. It was so well organized and there were a lot of people there (there was also a 10k and a full marathon) that were doing the race. No real spectators though because we were on an army base...secret stuff.

I learned a few things and have a few funny stories. First I learned that I never should have bought the hype of how they "changed the course from the hilly version in the past and now it was fast and flat". I call total BS on that one. We had about 3-5 major hills! By major hills, I mean that one of them was a freeway off ramp that went up and over another road and lasted for .5miles (straight up). The rest of the course was gradual ups and downs...pretty much the opposite of fast and flat. Don't get me wrong, it was a great course and had I actually trained with hills it would have been awesome but when I read fast and flat that means I trained on our bike path (which is fast and flat). Hmmm. The hills got me. I will not let them win next year. I live in an extremely hilly neighborhood here, just didn't think I needed to run in it during training. Now I know better. Second, blisters SUCK!! I haven't really had them before during an actual race (had a couple during training but nothing that really hurt during the running). I think that the issue here is that you train on sidewalks or running paths but then when you run the race, you run on the road. Not sure how many of you have fun races, or even noticed the structure of roads, but they are like humps in the middle with slopes on the side (for rain and oil to drain off of them). It isn't something you really notice when you are driving but when you are pounding the pavement for 2.5hrs, you notice. I didn't have the hip problems that Leslie and Ali had but I think that having my foot be slightly slanted the whole time is the cause of the blister (I had them on both feet right where my big toe attaches to my foot, weird place so it wasn't my shoes rubbing). So, my advice if you are going to train for a big run is to find a road you can run on to practice that and the way it moves your foot differently than flat ground. I have strange muscles that are sore and I think it is the ones that have to stabilize your foot on uneven ground. Third, I learned not to lay in grass after the race. I had no idea this would ever be an issue. I have never had a problem with grass but the grass here is different and technically I am allergic. We stopped running and went to find Ali (she finished 15 mins ahead of us) and she was sitting in the grass. We got water and gatorade and joined her. About 5 mins later my legs started itching. I thought it was just my eczema because it gets irritated when I get hot so I scratched it. By the time we got up 10 mins later my entire legs itched and I had red bumps spreading everywhere. Then they were not just on my legs but they were on my arms and everywhere...gross. I didn't think much of it and we got our beer and then headed back to the car. By the time I got home, went to get food and then got home again, I couldn't stand the itch anymore. I took a shower and applied hydrocortozone but they were there all day! Today they are a little better, not as puffy and don't itch. How annoying though...who wants a rash after running 13 miles?? Not this gal.

So, funny stories. We luckily planned ahead and didn't pull our normal "let's just get there 10 mins before deal" and left early. It took us 30 mins to go 2 miles because so many people were trying to get into the base. When we parked it was all in this nice orderly fashion and on the grass (this is important later) and then we took our before pictures, got everything we needed and headed for a port a potty. We had to pee. We stood in line for the port a potty for about 30 mins...yuck, and we missed the start of the race. We didn't really care since they start the time when your chip crosses the start line but after we got out of the bathroom line and headed to the start it was a literally 10 min walk...oops. We didn't start until 8:42 HA! We thought it might be good because we wouldn't have to deal with the crowds...um, not so much. We didn't have to deal with the jockeying at the beginning but we did have to pass almost all 1000 of those people that we finished before. Most of them walkers in groups that spread all the way across the road. UGH. So much wasted energy!! I guess that isn't that funny except that we missed the beginning of the race. The second funny story is that after everything we limp to the car and then we can't find it. Remember how I said we parked all orderly? Well, apparently 5 million cars showed up after us and we weren't parked where we thought. It was really sad but if you had ever been to this base you would understand. We were not the only people who couldn't find our car...there were a ton of people out there just turning in circles. We didn't remember how far we had walked and since everything is grass, it is hard to tell what area you were in. I remembered that we went over some gravel but there were like 4 different places where you could go over gravel. Then there were some cars parked orderly but they were too close for where we parked so we went somewhere else and the cars were all over the place..ugh. FINALLY Leslie screams that she found the car and we got in it to go home. This was after 30mins (literally) of us walking around the grass parking area. I think we probably ended up doing close to 17 miles yesterday with all the walking to the start line, from the start line and in the parking lot.

All in all, it was a really fun experience. Even though my time was not what I wanted it to be, I felt pretty good doing it and I think that I can improve upon my time. If anyone else wants to try a half, then come on up...we can make a weekend of it :-) Sept 17, 2011.

Vegas BABY!

I am in Vegas...I am not sure I am a fan. I know that it is so not cool to say how you are not a fan of Vegas, but let me explain. I have been here 4 times.

1. Came with Leigh Anne and her family when I was 22...AWESOME time. Played craps for hours, drank and wow $900 on a slot machine.
2. Came for 3 weeks straight for work in January of 2006 and was flying back and forth and investigating a fraud...got asked out every night by this sketchy guy (not sketchy looking but like too much all over me guy) about every night. Was working my butt off and was tired every night (and it is cold here in Jan).
3. Craig and I were here for a night on one of our long trips...we got in at noon, had a "disagreement", made up and then walked 5 miles on the strip which ended with me crying because I was so tired and my feet hurt and we tried to take a cut through to get to our hotel (we went on to have an awesome vacation but that day was rough, he is not a good flyer).

Now I am back. I came in on Monday (middle seat on a 4hr flight) and I am here with my whole group (they came in last night). Let's see how the events have gone so far. Monday night I went out with a bunch of Mercedes dealers and auction people...dinner was good, but it was 4 courses and took 4hrs. I checked into my hotel room at 1:30am EST after getting up at 5:30am. Last night my other people came in and I was going to pick them up at the airport. Go to dinner with the same group...dealer hitting on me big time...wants to leave with me to get my girls so he can "make sure I will come to the after party". I tell another girl I work with and we leave to go to the bathroom and she walks me out. I pick up my girls...one is drunk (she is obnoxious when not drunk, good worker but our personalities are night and day) and they want to go out. I have no desire. I am trying to make sure I get enough sleep and water for my half marathon on Saturday...the 4hr dehydrating plane ride home will be bad enough in my middle seat again. We got on the list for Ghost Bar (if you watched Real World Las Vegas, is it the bar with the open deck) and we go...we order one round of drinks and it was $50 for 5 drinks...$9 for a Corona. UGH. We are not supposed to just have alcohol on our receipts we turn in and my T&E goes straight to the top...not good. I realized that it is no fun when you are the boss and have to follow the rules. They are all used to throwing down because the last time they went on these types of trips was when the money was flowing like water...no more. I just hate it. I hate feeling like the uptight person. Plus, all the girls at that club were half naked and had 6 inch heels...ugh. So, we will see what tonight brings. The one girl wants to walk the strip and just drink as we walk, the other girl wants to go clubbing (she is the only single one) and I think that the walking sounds good to me. I think that I just don't enjoy the club scene that much anymore anyway and certainly not with work people. We will see.

In other news, wish me luck on Saturday! I ran 10 miles last Friday and felt good...so good that I am actually looking forward to the half on Saturday...I think that I am going to sign up for another one in October. I might be insane but I feel like it keeps me exercising...