My Week in Photos

December is always a busy freelance month for me. This past week, I had four photography events, two of which I also provided some video support. All of the ceremonies took place in the span of two days.
 
I used my personal camera to take pictures.

A faculty was appointed to say the closing remarks at one of the ceremonies. Everyone was ready to go (and eat dinner, I'm sure) and the faculty said, "I just have a few words to say,"  --- then she rolled out a scroll. Haha!!!!

My weekend office. I like the view.

I'll leave you with two sweet pictures of Dakota.
   

My Dallas (Half) Marathon Race Photos

Here are my race photos

This was early on, during the race - that's why I'm so happy. And the photo to the right is me crossing the finish line.

Jeri and I tired, but happy.

Eyes Set on Christmas

Hi there! I've been trying to think of what to make for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Dinner. When I asked Trey what he wanted, he responded with, let's go to Chuy's for fajitas. Mmmm, that sounds good, but I'd really like to make something. Any ideas? I'm not all crazy about ham, maybe turkey or an italian dish. I'm limited because Trey is a picky eater, so think 7 year-old.

I work in academia and I get a little over a week off for Christmas break. I'm looking forward to it. At the moment, I don't have anything planned. Trey will be working, so it'll just be the girls and I at home. I might try to plan a few things for us to do and possibly plan a trip to Abilene, but staying at home the majority of time sounds like a good idea.

Are you done Christmas shopping?
Yes --- for the most part. I still want to get Trey a few more things. Last year, he really showed me up. I can't let him out do me, again. We still need to get Dakota something. Besides clothes, what do you give a 6 month old? Toys?

Day 9 - 10: Make a Sweet Treat & More

25 Days of Christmas Continues...
Day 10: Make a Sweet Treat
All in favor of sugar, raise your hand.

That's what I thought. Actually, our whole family likes Christmas treats, so you can expect to see more food postings in the coming weeks.
This recipe was brought to you by Pinterest.

Chocolate Trifle

1 pan of baked brownies cut into small squares

One 6 oz pkg of chocolate pudding

3 cups of Cool Whip

1 pkg of Heath Bars (small pieces) - Save some to garnish

Make the pudding according to pkg. Fold 2 cups of cool whip into the pudding. In a large dessert bowl layer the brownies, pudding, and Heath Bar. Repeat layers. Garnish with Heath Bars. Easy! 

It was so good. Chey and I made this batch and I took it to ladies night. I figured I'd have leftovers and I did! Chey and I plan on digging in this evening. We've already discussed it. We have a plan.

Day 9: Color Christmas Pages

Dakota still has a runny nose, but for the most part it just seems like allergies. Yesterday, all she wanted to do was eat. Growth spurt? Probably.

2012 Dallas Marathon (Half for Me)

Distance: 13.1 miles
Duration: 2 hr 6 mins
Avg Pace Per Mile: 9:38 (official time)
Weather: 70 degrees (HUMID)
I'm so glad I did not have my eyes set on a sub 2 hour race. My Half Marathon PR is 1 hr 56 mins. It was too hot for that. Oh, yeah and I had a baby a few months ago, so there's that too.

EXPO (Saturday) 
I'm going to backtrack for just a moment. Saturday, Trey and I took the girls to the Dallas Convention Center and we checked out the expo. I was hoping to see my friend, Jeri -- She lives in South Dakota. I've been blog/twitter stalking following her online for a few years. I like to think, the stalking is mutual. I was so excited when her schedule and my schedule worked out and we were able to meet in real life. She's so much fun! I enjoyed the few hours we spent walking the expo floor. I wish we had all weekend to hang out, but I'm sure her Dallas family would hate me for kidnapping her.

Instead of kidnapping Jeri, I did the next best thing, we ran together. Granted, it was only about a mile and a half, but still...

I promise, she's totally normal. Haha!

SUNDAY MORNING: RACE DAY 
3:30 am
I heard Dakota moving around in her crib. I got her and fed her.
4:00 am
Got dressed. Ate Oatmeal with bananas walnut and cinnamon. Updated my music playlist. I needed Weezer!
4:50 am
Becca arrived at my house and shortly after, we were in the car driving to Dallas.
6:30 am
Parked! I was worried about traffic, but going to the expo the day before really put me at ease. I knew where I was going and I had a general idea of where I wanted to park.
6:40 am
First porta-potty break.
7:00 am
Met Jeri near the 9:30 pace group and had to say goodbye to Becca, since officials were enforcing assigned corral locations. She was assigned to C. I wanted to run with her too.

By 8:05 am I was running. The first mile was fine, but then the heat started to get to me and I knew it would be a terrible mistake to push it. So, my race strategy was to run and do my best to keep a 9:30 pace. If it was cooler (maybe 40-50 degrees), I think I would have shot for a 9 minute pace. Honestly, I was thrilled just to be running, my longest distance since having a baby - (6 months postpartum). I ran the first mile and a half with Jeri. She gave me the green light to go on without her, so I did. We met at the finish line.

Becca and I after the race. She is also a momma. Her son turns one this month. She did great, I'm so proud of her and I'm pretty sure she exceeded her goal time.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for me:
After I finished (30 minutes later), I was so thirsty. I needed bottled water, not a kid cup that volunteers were handing out at the finish line. You guys know how I am about water. When I went in the expo, there was a massive crowd, trying to make their way to the expo area and I was standing there trying to make my way over there too, I almost lost it. I felt nauseous, weak, light headed, irritable, and extremely thirsty and hungry. Remember, I ate at 4:30'ish am. I was on the verge of fainting. Once I broke away from the crowd, drank water and ate food - I was back to myself. Next time, I need to run with at least one gel and have my own snacks handy. I thought Gatorade and water would get me through, but obviously not. It worked for me before, but this time I didn't take into account that I'm still nursing a 6 month old.

Recovering
Today, my legs feel sore, but not trashed.

More Race Stats 
 

Shaking it Out, A Lovely Lunch Date & 25 Days of Christmas

My morning started with a 4 mile shake-out run, just to loosen up, before running the Dallas (half) marathon tomorrow. I took it easy. Real easy.

After my run, the whole family and I headed to the expo. I'll talk more about that later, in another post. While I was at the Dallas Convention Center, buying 40 dollar socks (compression is expensive), Trey and Cheyenne had a lunch date a McDonald's.



Ice Cream too??? Okay, now I'm jealous.

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25 Days of Christmas

Day 7: Watch a Christmas Movie 
Pizza and a movie night! We watched Elf! It was Trey's first time to ever see it. Say what?
Day 8: Buy Trey's gift
Chey and I snuck off this afternoon to Lowe's. I finally redeemed my Citi Thank you points and used a portion of them for Trey's gift. Me in Lowe's buying tool things, equals a very lost girl. We'll see if I did good or if Trey will be returning gifts.

Day 6: Toast and Drink Hot Cocoa

Day 5 (Wednesday): Make Christmas Cards at Awana's for Nursing Home Patients
It was a mommy and me, type of activity. Angelica enjoyed it, but Cheyenne was feeling sick and Dakota's nose kept running, so we left early. No snotty pictures from that event.

Day 6 (Thursday): Toast and Drink Hot Cocoa

 On a completely non-related note, this is my all time favorite e-card. Have I posted this before? I can't remember.

If you haven't heard (obviously, you are not current on this blog because lately, I won't shut-up about it) -- Sunday is the Dallas Half Marathon, which reminds me I need to carb-load. I won't go crazy, but no promises. I'll probably make baked ziti Saturday night. I've had it several times as a pre-race dinner and my tummy likes it. 

Have a great weekend! I'll try to squeeze one more run in before Sunday.

Dakota is 6 Months Old and She's Kicking Back

- She's not even sitting up by herself, much less trying to crawl.
- She's fascinated with her hands. She holds them out in front of her face and she just stares at them.
- This girl likes the sound of her own voice. She's already saying Da-Da. I told Trey it doesn't count if he's not around to hear it.

How does she do that with her tongue?

I was laughing so hard. I was begging her to do it again and she had this look on her face. DAKOTA!

And then she entertained me, again. It takes talent doing that with her tongue and blowing bubbles from her nose.

Day 4: Write a Letter to Santa

Dear Santa, 
We want everything. 

Sincerely, 
Cheyenne, Angelica, Trey, Dakota, and Dom

Notice - Elf is playing in the background. YES!

Day 3: Create & Organize Christmas Cards

I knew I was shooting for the moon thinking I'd be able to mail out Christmas Cards today. However, we picked out a nice template. I'll get the cards ordered in the next few days and have the girls help me mail them.

I Have My Lab Results 
Remember all the stomach pain I was complaining about? Good news, my lab results came back A-OK. This is good, right??? Butttttttt it bothers me, that the doctor has no idea why I was in so much pain. Just go with it??? Well, that's what I did this morning. I ran on the treadmill for the first time in EIGHT days. I broke 6 miles up in two segments. 4 miles at 11 am and then 2 miles at 2 pm.

25 Days of Christmas

The girls and I wanted to do something special this year for Christmas. We made a list of 25 Christmas related activities to do each day leading up to the big day.
It's something we can do together, as a family.

Here are the first five activities:
1. Watch the lighting of the Community Christmas Tree and Fireworks Show
2. Make Paper Snowflakes (We did that a few hours ago)
3. Start working on Family Christmas Cards (maybe get them mailed, I'm being hopeful)
4. Write and Mail a Letter to Santa
5. Awana's: Christmas Card Night

Our Method: 
We have an envelope for each day and inside each one there is a piece of paper, that has the evening activity. The girls thought it would be a good idea to draw and color each package.

Ohhhh, I'm looking forward to day 6!

Do you have anything special you are doing for Christmas? Any traditions? This is our first year to do this, we'll see how it goes - I'll be blogging about our activities this month - so check back to see what we're up to!

The Lighting of THE Christmas Tree and Fireworks

Every year our community has a Christmas Celebration - There's all kinds of things like Santa Claus making an appearance, the lighting of THE community Christmas Tree,  and a fireworks show.
This was our first year to attend the celebration. We've been missing out all these years. We might have to make this a tradition.

Dakota was in awe of the fireworks.

Cheyenne, not so much.



Besides doing that, we made a trip to Lowe's. I asked Trey to show me what he wanted for Christmas. I need ideas!!!!! P.S. Cheyenne dressed herself.

P.S.S. I also dressed myself and apparently I look like a Lowe's employee because two men asked me for assistance.