PR!

This weekend we had a busy but fun weekend!  Friday night after work, we headed to Richmond to pick up Billy's race packet, meet Greg and Erin for dinner, and spent the night at their house.  We got up at 5:30AM on Saturday morning (kinda funny how we get up way earlier on race weekends than we ever do during the week) and headed to downtown Richmond for the half marathon.  Billy had been feeling better and healthier before this race than several of his recent ones, and he stuck to his coach's gameplan for training and race strategy, and it paid off!  He shaved around 4 minutes off of his previous half marathon PR, finishing with a time of 1:17:41!!  Very exciting!  And, he was 16th out of around 7000 in a pretty fast race.  The winner of the race actually beat the previous race course record by several minutes, so everyone seemed to be pretty "on" in this race.  I walked around with Jefferson for a few miles until I found a spot near the finish line to watch the first half marathon finishers come in while enjoying my hot chocolate - it was really cold if you weren't running!!

easy to pick out with his highlighter outfit!

After the race, we headed to C-ville where we dropped Jefferson off at Pamepred Pets and went to the hotel where we worked out in the little gym and got ready for the game.  The game was not so hot, but we did get to see Hunter and Mika, which was fun since we hadn't seen them in forever, sat in some new seats for a different (yet still painful) view of the game, and got some pretty fall pictures on the lawn. 

We ate a Mellow Mushroom after the game, got dessert at Arch's, and were actually in bed around 9:30 that night!  Kind of lame I guess, but we were both really tired and didn't feel any shame in being asleep by 10!  The next morning, we headed back home pretty early so we could get in a workout here (Billy ran, and I went to Zumba at the Y), get unpacked, and ate Mexican for dinner.  We also watched "The International", which was very good, but we realized shortly into the movie that we had already rented it...oops!  It was still good the second time around though :)

So, it was a good weekend with Billy's PR being a big highlight!

THANKS

With it being Veteran's Day today, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the servicemen and servicewomen who have sacrificed so much for us to have the freedom we so often take for granted.  It is such a blessing to live here in the US with opportunities and freedoms a lot of people around the world will never have and that wouldn't have been possible without the willingness of so many men and women to serve and fight for our country over the past 200+ years.  I am thankful that both of my grandfathers, my uncle, my cousin, and many family friends, who fought in various wars (WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Iraq), all made it back from their tours safely by the grace of God.  And, my heart aches for those families who have lost loved ones and for the soldiers who suffered injuries during their active duty.  I will continue to pray for God's blessing and protection over our country and our soldiers who have given us so much.  Happy Veteran's Day!

and the party never ends

last night, we went to the robert earl keen show at the norva, and it was so much fun!  i didn't know too many of his songs, but it was a great concert.  and, because this area apparently doesn't have a huge r.e.k. following, we got to be very close to the stage, so that was fun!  billy especially liked the steel guitar and that it was close enough to Christmas for him to play "merry christmas to the family" :)  and, i ran into a pr consultant i used to work with, so that was fun to see her as well!  kinda funny that i've been in the area long enough to run into people i know at random events.  we don't normally splurge and go to concerts, even though billy and i both love music and going to local concerts, so i'm glad we did this!  and, hopefully we'll continue going to concerts every so often, since we both enjoy it a lot!

finished!!

it's official...my appraisal licensing experience log is in the mail!!  now, it's just a matter of a week or two before i am fully licensed and can start working on my own!  it was such a relief sealing up that envelope and finally being finished with my trainee work, and i'm so thankful that God has led me in this direction.  i think i'll be really happy with having a career as an appraiser, so i'm excited to see what the future holds in terms of developing my business. 

possible next step...get my real estate license, which i may try and do this winter, but we'll see.  it might be best to grow my appraisal business first and go from there.  but, i could probably pick up a decent number of clients trying to sell their homes from my appraisal work, which could be another good business opportunity! 

i guess this means figuring out a home office setup for me as well, which i am super excited about!  i may just take over the dining room for now, since we only eat in there a couple times a year, but we'll see.  i'll post pics once i start figuring out office stuff!

Early Christmas Shopping

So, this year, I'm not really doing much (if any) Christmas shopping, since I'm making my own Christmas presents for family members...assuming I can get my act together!  And, Billy and I don't really get each other anything big for Christmas, so my shopping will be very limited, but on Kelly's Korner blog today, instead of the "house tour" posts, she's having people who are creative and crafty and make things to sell link up with her blog to let other people see what cute things they make and possibly do a little early shopping.  I'm excited to check out the sites, as from the house tour photos, there are lots of creative people linking up with her blog!  So, if you're wanting some distraction from work or feel like being ambitious and getting your Christmas shopping going early, check out her cute blog and the crafty peoples' links. 

pumpkin bread

last weekend, i was feeling in the mood for some fall comfort sides to go with our salmon cakes, so we paired them with baked acorn squash and pumpkin muffins...yummy! 

i didn't take pictures of the results, but everything was great!  and went well with our fall beverage choices of pumpkin ale, dark chocolate stout, and hard cider :)

for the squash, here's what i did:

halved the squash and scooped out the seeds and other goop (i actually rinsed the seeds in a strainer, tossed on a baking sheet with a little olive oil, kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper, and roasted to make a great snack or salad topping)
put a little butter and brown sugar in the pit that was created (i actually used little packets of butter that we'd gotten with some takeout italian a few weeks ago, so it was the perfect small amount of butter to put in the squash)
baked in an uncovered casserole dish with about 1/2 an inch of water in the bottom at varying temperatures (between 350 and 450, as i was accommodating baking/roasting a couple other things simultaneously) for around 35-40 minutes...i kept my eye on the squash and tested it with a fork to make sure the "meat" had gotten soft enough

it was delicious and pretty healthy and made me excited about cooking more fall and winter veggies!

for the pumpkin muffins, i used this pumpkin bread recipe from real simple online that was yummy and very simple...and, i had everything on hand in my kitchen!  i ended up adding craisins and an egg white as well, and instead of baking in a loaf pan as the recipe said to do, i put the batter in a muffin tin.  i've found that's a little easier for storage and portion control!  the canned pumpkin and egg made the muffins fluffy and pretty too! 

this coming week, i'm planning on breaking out the crock pot to do some more fall/comfort food meals that will make themselves while i'm at work! 

Pain Train

Saturday, the Wicked 10K was held in Va Beach, and Billy and three other Running Etc guys ran the race as a train.  Now when I first imagined this, I thought each guy would run in an individual box and that they would all be joined with some string or bungee cord...however, when I arrived at the race site long before anyone should be up on a Saturday morning, I was very surprised to find one 16-foot-long train in the final stages of construction. 


Here are some pictures from our early Saturday morning...

Finishing touches (still dark outside)

Jefferson tagged along as the pumpkin

Ready for the "drivers"

Strapping in (they all wore belts, which they attached to the PVC frame with rope)

About to head out

Practicing

Nice shot of the cow running alongside the train

A little over halfway

Billy bringing up the caboose (I had a tough time getting all of the train at once!)

My one good action shot!

Post-race...they finished at just over an 8-minute pace...while being a train :)

So, to keep with the train theme, by Sunday morning, we felt like we'd been hit by a train :)  This is how our weekend went...Saturday we were up at 5AM (I always think it's funny how we get up waaaayyy earlier on the weekends for races than we ever do during the week), headed out to VB by about 5:40, and got there around 6:20.  Billy and the guys put the final touches on the train, race started at 8AM, and we were in the car heading to Norfolk by about 9:30.  I dropped Billy off for work, and Jefferson and I headed to the dog park by Peta, which is such a nice dog park.  And it has a ramp into the Elizabeth River!  Jefferson ran around, hauling after a cocker spaniel for the first little while, and then he found Atlas, a golden retriever with a floating buoy play toy.  Atlas' owners were nice and shared the toy with Jefferson, who swam basically nonstop for probably 15-20 minutes and was very upset when I told him it was time to leave. 

Here are a couple of dogpark pictures...

After we got home from the dogpark, I went to one of our company's rental houses to clean, then came back and did some cleaning around our house until I had to go pick Billy up.  I got to Running Etc a little early since there's a new Skinny Dip on Colley that had its grand opening, which meant big discounts on their yummy frozen yogurt!  After he got off work, we headed for a workout and shower at the Norfolk Y, which is soooo nice...much nicer than when I used to workout there before I moved to Suffolk.  We grabbed a quick bit to eat at a Mexican place and then headed to a co-worker's house for game night.  So, that was all lots of fun, but by the time we got home around midnight (or maybe later), we were super tired and went right to bed.  And slept until close to 11!  We never sleep in, so that was really nice (and needed after our super long day).  We watched a sermon from Buckhead Church online, did some chores around the house, went to First Landing Park to run (well, Jefferson and I ran/walked, but we still went around 7 miles!), picked up some Halloween candy, and got home in time for the trick-or-treators to come.  Billy made dinner while I handed out candy and worked on my Bible study, so that worked out well. 

So, it was a very fun yet tiring weekend, and we're getting pretty good at making the most of our now-one-day weekends!  And, it's been good for me to do some side jobs while Billy's working on Saturdays, so that's good for some extra dollars :) 

Separation Anxiety

Jefferson has always had fairly severe separation anxiety from anyone and everyone that leaves our house...whether they've been there 30 seconds, a couple of hours, or days.  He gets really upset and runs around barking and shaking his toys at the person who is about to leave (or has just left).  I've tried some of Cesar's suggestions like not paying him any attention when he's acting like this (so as not to give him any kind of response to the unfavorable behavior) and rewarding him when he behaves well, but nothing seems to work. 

So, this past Friday and again today, I tried out a new idea...confining him to the front part of our house...this means he can go in the living room (where he sits at "his post" - aka the couch - and keeps guard all day, watching animals, walkers, mailman, etc), dining room (hoping he doesn't go in there too much though, which you'll understand from the pictures below), and upstairs to the bedrooms.  It worked really well on Friday, but that may have been due to the Beggin Strip cookie I gave him that distracted him while I slipped out the back door :)  I'll have to get the report from Billy about today, since he left the house after me this morning.  Let's hope this will work well for him, as I don't want to have to crate him all day while we're at work.  I'm fine crating him for a few hours at a time while we run errands, go to the gym, etc., but I'd prefer to let him roam the house during the day if possible. 

Our nice bolster pillow just makes me sad...Jefferson takes his frustration about us leaving out on the pillow by dominating it.  Kinda funny but also upsetting because of what he has done to the pillow's formerly nice shape.  And, our bed looks much more made up in the mornings, but he nests on our pillows and comforter, hence the dissheveled look :)

His little nails have done a number on our dining room window sills...he tries to jump up on the windows to see us leaving.  So frustrating!!  Especially since it would do no good to fix them until he's kicked this habit!

And this is tough to see, but our wall under the windows/chair rail molding could stand another coat of paint due to our little terrier charging into the dining room and sliding right into the wall before jumping up as you see below...

He is watching a squirrel on the neighbor's roof, but this is his usual position to watch us leaving (and scracth up our window sills)

Jefferson at his post :)

He has also prompted us to lay all of our couch cushions totally flat so that he can lay on them without misshaping yet another pillow in the house.  But I guess it's good he thinks of this as his round-the-clock "job"

Let's hope this works!! 

Enjoying the Beggin Strip and, more importantly, not caring that I'm about to leave :)

Let's hope today is as successful as Friday!!

Happy Halloween!

We were actually in town this year for Halloween, so we decided to hand out candy (well I handed out candy while Billy grilled out for us) and ended up getting a decent amount of trick-or-treators.  Jefferson was really excited about all of the new people that came to the door and tolerated his pumpkin costume very well!


Here's a little comparison of him from his first Halloween and this year:

Halloween 2007

Jefferson was almost 3 months old, and we had just gotten him a few days before this...isn't he sooo precious and tiny!!

Halloween 2010

Our cute little pumpkin!

And just one more picture of Jefferson and me when we were in Atlanta and he had first gotten his costume :)