his creation...

The other night the hubs was out and about and I was stuck in class. Which really means I was stuck upstairs glued to the computer, as it is an online class. Anyhow, the puppy was downstairs and I was not. When I left him he was being all sweet and cuddly. I knew it would be safe to leave him downstairs because around this time of the night that puppy is calm and up to no mischief. I checked on him periodically by looking over the banister. He was being a sweetie.

Then... after being in class for a little while I thought it was about time to check on the puppy. And this is what I found:

o. good. gracious.

and yes, I did take the time to take a picture of his creation.

Let me just tell you, he has never done anything quite this elaborately before. ... well, there was that one time he snuck into the laundry basket and grabbed something he should have not and completely destroyed it. I have never seen underwear in so mutilated and in so many pieces before. Oh, puppy... oh, my.

But I love him because he is sweet and cuddly the other 98% of the time. Plus, he is perfect company. Really, if you got to know if you would love him too. This is probably giving some of you a terrible perception of our sweet little puppy (note the word puppy: puppies do this kind of thing, not grown up puppies). But he really is wonderful and sweet and adorable, see?

and there is even laundry right next to his little head. Now, that's a good puppy.

Baking Home

Baking is glorious and relaxing. I could bake anything on any day. Send a recipe my way and I will bake it up and show the results or test it out for you. Sadly though, I haven't had much time for baking lately. School, homework, and even laundry take priority over baking. However, today we had a few spotty bananas and the hubs has been asking for a little while if I would please be able to make some banana bread soon. So I did. This baking bread time was wonderful and glorious, and I was soaking in every minute of it, especially because I was well aware of the fact that it would mean I would be staying up a little bit later than I would like because I was doing something for pleasure.

So I pulled out the fork and mashed up some bananas, added some sugar and flour and popped two loaf pans into the oven. Oh, the warm and welcoming aroma that filled house... That might be one reason I love baking so much. It makes a house feel like a home. Especially on a rainy afternoon. After 50 minutes of waiting I was happy to enjoy some banana bread. Come over and I will share some with you!

what am I doing?

Life is back to normal. Well, maybe... is there really ever a normal? I think not. Or, there might be. But just not for me. I feel like normal is always changing. Though thankfully I think a little routine is beginning to emerge. Who knows though. And really, a routine? I'm not sure I am capable of this. Not true, I am, I just have been lacking one for some time now.

Anyhow. Life is life. I wake up very early in the morning and begin my day with breakfast.

I Love breakfast. Who doesn't though? It's only The Best Meal of the day! I mean, think about all of the deliciosity (yes that is a word, but don't look it up :) that comes along with breakfast. Off the top of my head: pancakes: blueberry, chocolate chip, buttermilk, banana... waffles, crepes, muffins, oatmeal, eggs, biscuits, fruit, yogurt, cereal, toast, French toast... and those are just a few. Anyhow, can you not see how incredible breakfast is? Sad to admit that my typical week day breakfast usually consists of a bowl of cereal and maybe an English Muffin. A shame really considering all of the elaborate and delicious choices out there for me.

I'm at school now, all day, every day as a student teacher. It's pretty nice. I get to be a teacher and a student at the same time, so I have the responsibility of both. Learning much? Busy much? Stressed much? To say yes would be an understatement. So anyhow, this is what I do. This is what fills my days.

As I was taking a break from homework and school (some refer to it as procrastinating) this afternoon, I was reading a post by a new blog friend (I'm allowed to say that because that's what blogging people say about people they have never met but still know because they read all about them in their blog) of mine over at Story of My Life I got to thinking about the purpose of this here little blog. What am I trying to do? Unburden my life through words? Eh, maybe. Retell the events of my day? Not really, but I find myself doing it just the same. Tell an amusing story? Yes. I like to think I do. On occasion at least. Impart my worldly wisdom? Most certainly :D So anyways. I'm a thinkin'. Purpose. What is it? Apparently it's a good thing to have. But then again, maybe the purpose of this blog is just like the purpose of my life, of which I am not sure.

But for today the purpose will be to impart a few words of wisdom. From my brain to yours: Sometimes it is best to ignore a nippy puppy, and sometimes it can be detrimental.

then we walked some more

Since I'm on this big Disney kick, and I'm having fun posting pictures, I'm going to continue with the rest of our trip. Keep in mind my broken legs and feet were still broken as we went toured Disney World.

We saw a Magical Parade the night after our big run...

And the Amazing fireworks at the Castle (that I ran through that morning).

The next morning we went to Animal Kingdom and met Thumper. What a treat : )

We also met Daisy Duck. She was very nice.

And then of course Donald Duck.

It was pretty wonderful. I ran my run and didn't die. I also got to hobble around Disney World with the Hubs, Sis, and C~. Then I bid farewell to my loverly faithful and painful shoes... till we meet again...

After the 1/2

Like I said earlier, I broke both of my feet and legs while running the 1/2. No one believed me though, so they dragged me along on crazy adventures. All of these adventures involved standing and walking for extensive periods of time.

Note how I am standing... more like leaning on the hubs for support since as you can clearly see my legs are broken.

As you can see from the picture below my feet really and truly are quite broken. Do you see how fat and puffy and purple they are? Seriously. Also, I have black toenails. For this very reason I went out and bough some nail polish to cover up the ugly nasty blackness on my toes. Though, I hear that makes me a true and real live runner.... you know, that's just what I am. I am a runner. ha. Though I will have to say, the warm sand felt pretty glorious after the 1/2... even though I was standing on my broken legs.

The hubs, and C~ decided to go out and explore Disney World after our quick visit to the beach. So we did. Unfortunately, I never got the wheel chair or crutches I requested. As hubs, C~, and even at times Sis, were walking 100 miles an hour I was lagging far far behind, hobbling as quickly as I possibly could to keep up with them. At one point I ran to catch up. Although, the run wasn't so running like. My legs buckled under and gave out. Oh gracious. After that I stuck to my hobble. Although it was slow, it worked and it took me places ... all of the same places I had run past not even eight hours prior. Like...

and...

But hey, at least no more damage was done to my already broken legs : ) Seriously though, it was a fun time

Princess 1/2 part 2

The big morning arrived. Bright and early. Or maybe I should say dark and early, cause that's pretty much what it was. Dark. And Incredibly early. Like 3:45 or something ridiculous like that. Thankfully the sis and I were prepared. We had already pinned the bibs on our running shirts and had our whole running outfit laid out and waiting. I didn't really mean to, or maybe I did, either way I did... break the cardinal running a marathon rule: don't wear anything new on the day of the big run. Well, I did. It was new to me, except the shoes of course. But I couldn't resist, Sis has the absolute coolest and cutest clothes ever on the face of the planet, even for running. So she brought some awesomeness for me to borrow. So sweet she is. Anyhow. We were ready to concur the world. As is evident by the following photographs:

Up and ready to run, run, run, run, and run some more...

At the big event! Right before we ditched the hubs and C~ to start. Personally, I love the tiaras but the entire ensemble was pretty awesome too.

After this we walked about ten miles to get to the starting line at which point we began the 13.1 mile trek across Disney World. That's right. We were so amazing they set fireworks off for us when we started. It was pretty awesome.

Then we ran. At lighting speed.

With lots of princesses.

With big bright smiles plastered across our faces.

I think it would be safe to say I only broke my left and right foot, right and left legs. Thankfully this didn't happen until mile 11 so I only had to crawl towards the finish line for 3 miles, not too bad, I mean, it could have been 13 miles of crawling and dragging myself. But it wasn't.

So we ran. A lot. And it was ... fun. Running was fun. Running the Princess 1/2 was fun. Yes. I said it. I said fun and run in the same sentence. On purpose. How about that?

If I were a super crazy ... like some of these:

(I think you know who I am talking about) I could have stopped to have my photo taken with some awesome and sweet characters like: Captain Jack Sparrow, Aladdin, Tarzan, Belle and Geston, Alice, the Fairy Godmothers... and a thousand others. Well, really, if I had carried a camera with me the whole 13.1 miles I could have done that. But I didn't. I decided to look and smile instead of stand all nasty sweaty like next to some really hott Prince. ya know... priorities.

One thing I did like about the 1/2 was all of the cheerleaders (spectators along the course cheering us on) and the entertainment along the way. These guys were pretty cool. I got to listen for a whole .59 seconds, that's how fast I was :D

But seriously, it was pretty awesome. I would have died if there had been nothing to look at or distract me along the way. I also had a pretty awesome Sis, we ran together pretty much the whole time. Running with her made it fun.

Anyhow. I ran. I finished. It was fun. See, I'm happy and smiling.

I got a medal. And finished with my tiara in place.

This is the after picture, and yes, I am smiling a real smile.

I was quite pleased and tickled with myself for running in a 1/2. Who knows, maybe I will do it again some day... but probably only for a 1/2 I can wear a tiara in and be considered underdressed : )

There is more I can and will share about my grand adventure, like what happened after the run. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Now, please leave a comment. If ran a 1/2, you can leave a comment, or at least start following me : ) Or both. Preferably. That would be nice. I would like to know who is reading me.

Also, I promise to start posting regularly again, things have kind of settled down a little so keep your eyes peeled for future awesomeness :D

Princess 1/2 part 1

It's over. Finished. Gone. No longer. Bye-bye.

And it went just like that... snap. Blink of an eye.

I ran a half marathon. That's 13.1 miles to be precise. And really, by the time you add up all of the miles I walked before and after the race it's really more like 10,000. But, who's counting? Not me.

So yes. My grand adventure. My torturous training. My aching feet. My goal. My dream. My crazy idea. Is over.

It's a little bit sad.

You know how it all started... that one crazy idea that popped up in my head way back when... and somehow turned into signing up for and running the Princess 1/2. Who would have thought I would actually do it?

The training was endless. The training was dreadful. And deadly. But I managed. Then I found myself on an airplane flying towards my doom.

The Princess 1/2.

My sister, friend, and hubs, all kept asking me if I was excited, pumped up... Let me think about that, Um no. Thankfully I was too busy to really dread it and it crept up on me like a little alligator.

So it begins: Saturday we went to the Expo Center to get our bibs (the things you have to pin on your clothes while you run) and welcome packets. While we were there we even got some free socks, cause we said we were running for Princess Belle (my personal favorite princess). It was pretty sweet getting the awesome new socks. What was not so sweet about the Expo Center was this:

In case you can't tell, there are millions of people there. Crazy! But that's where we had to go. My favorite thing is to be squished and surrounded by millions of people.

But we survived and then we were rewarded:

Showing our bibs off : )

Yes, that's right, we got our picture with the butlers, I happen to know that the one on the right loves stripes, good pick.

Unfortunately the hott and juicy details of the actual run will have to wait until tomorrow. So come back soon!!