A what difference a day makes...

Yesterday...

Today...

Enough said.

Mr "Toy Hoarder" Otis

Mr. Otis is a toy hog! On my way home, I stopped at the pet store to pick up some much needed dog food, and I also purchased two squeaker toys for the dogs. I got the same exact toy, different colors, so that they wouldn't fight over it. Yeah, it doesn't really work out that way. Mr Cooper just sits there feeling sad and submissive, hiding under the table...while Mr "Toy Hoarder" Otis hogs both toys, squeezing underneath the table next to Coops, squeaking the toys relentlessly and growling if Cooper moves his head even just a millimeter closer to the new toys.


Update: I fooled Otis by grabbing one of the stuffed 'animal' bones and tossing it for him to fetch. Meanwhile I snuck the other one to Coops. Otis got a little too aggressive when he finds out Cooper has one of the toys, and I have to take it away. Now both dogs are pouting. One bone is still on the floor. Neither dog wants it.

A Day at The Park!

Today was a beautiful spring day. Knowing that tomorrow it's going to snow, made today's spring weather all the more precious. Krissy called and wanted to meet me and the boys at the dog park. So the boys got to do what they hadn't done all winter -- one of their favorite things to do -- go to the dog park. The dogs had so much fun -- running around, herding the other dogs, herding Krissy, running around, sniffing dogs, running around. Well, I think you got the idea. In case you don't, here's some pics from our day! I even snuck some of the boys together when they weren't looking...

I did it!!

Hurray! I completed my longest run to date for my training -- 4 miles. I took a while, but I stuck it out and finished.

Now I'm going to go enjoy my dinner, my Skinny Cow, and my family as we watch our Friday night movie. This week we rented The Kite Runner.

Have a great weekend!

One very difficult thing to do...

...is to get a decent photo of Otis and Cooper together. I tried tonight, but it didn't really work. Just wanted to show you what Cooper has done! He's as big as Otis!

Running update...

88 days until Grandma's...


Let's see...I'm on a two-day running streak. lol. But I'm actually ahead of the game for the week. Yesterday was supposed to be an off day (but I ran Monday b/c I took of Easter when I wasn't supposed to do it). Monday was a good two miles. I ran the second whole mile in 8:57 minutes. Training to do all 13.1 miles with a 9 min/mile pace is a pretty big goal. I'm hoping that as I continue to get in better shape, I'll be able to maintain more than just a mile at that pace...right now I'm not there yet. Today I did three miles...did about a 10 min/mile pace. On Thursday, I have the longest one to date -- 4 miles. Let's hope I can get it all done!


Yeah, this photo is obviously not from today (our ground is still snow-covered, it's way too cold to run in short sleeves and shorts, and my hair is currently too short for a ponytail.) It's from 2006, just before Grandma's that year. I just wanted to post a photo, and in this one I just look so happy to be running. outside. warm.

Easter & Emily's B-day

Here's a bunch of photos from today's Easter and Emily's B-day party...

Emily's is in the middle and Amanda is on the right. Zoe is on the left. She lives across the street from my sister's house and her family came over for the day.

Amanda found a lot of eggs during the Easter egg hunt.

The girls all helped decorate the watermelon cake I made for Emily's b-day.

Emily's all set to blow out the candles. She got them out in one breath, which means no boyfriends until after college.

Amanda with her Auntie Rachel.

Emily with Auntie Jenny

El Arbol Generoso is the present Emily received from Uncle Dave and me.

Now I know why Emily always sticks out her tongue for photos. She gets it from her Dad. Be sure to check out all the hula hoop videos of everyone trying to hula. They are Stevie-snort-out-loud hilarious!

Do the hula, part 3

Emily got a hula hoop for her birthday. We all had a lot of fun trying to hula hoop. Do the hula, parts 1 - 3 are some of the funniest videos ever. We were laughing so hard. Luckily, this is my blog and the videos were taken with my camera, so there aren't any videos of me!

Do the hula, part 2

Do the hula, part 1

Happy Easter!

"They cut me down and I leapt up high,

I am the life that’ll never, never die;

I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he."

That's for Rachel, because they didn't sing our favorite Easter song today in church...And for everyone else, "Happy Easter!!"

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday with their family. My husband has to work at Home Depot today. I think they should make a rule -- if the grocery stores are closed for a holiday, every retailer should be closed. But I guess I don't make the rules.

Lucky for me, I have two things to celebrate today -- Easter and Emily's b-day. This afternoon, we're going to Becky's house for dinner and to celebrate. I can't believe my niece is 7! Hopefully, I remember my camera today and I'll take some photos. I've been bad at that lately. I didn't even take one photo in Duluth.

Anyway, over the weekend, I did take photos of two things.

First, on Friday, Dave and I have a little routine going. After work, we go to the gym and run. Then we head over to Cub and get groceries to make dinner and also get a movie out of the Red Box. This last Friday, we made tortilla pie. It looked pretty with all the layers, and it tasted pretty good too.

Then yesterday for the second day in a row, I woke up to it snowing outside. Yes, happy spring in Minnesnowta!

Guess who's back, back again?

Jenny's back, back again...

Wow! I think this is the longest I've ever gone without posting anything on my blog! The break was totally unintentional, but needed I guess. Not only did I take a break from posting the last week...I took a great too many breaks. Break from work, break on the running (and the training program only just begun..lol), break from dieting, break from the dogs, and best of all, SPRING BREAK. A break from school and a vacation to Duluth!!!

Our trip to Duluth was tons of fun. We spent a lot of time hanging out with people. We spent a half-day skiing at Spirit Mountain. Yes, Dave went skiing with me. And he actually did pretty good once he felt somewhat comfortable on the skis, said lots of prayers and got rid of his nerves. "God, you hold on and I'll ski," he said. Jim came too. I hadn't skied in five years, and loved skiing again. We were up there for St. Patty's Day, and I guess I had a little too much fun at the bar. At the end of the night, I got to know the toilet at our hotel really well. I did not feel good the next day. I don't drink like that very often, and that was a good reminder of why I don't drink that way. It'll be a long, long time before I try an Irish car bomb again. lol.

So we came home yesterday afternoon. It was nice to get our puppies back. They had a good time again at Camp Bow Wow. Last time we took them there, Cooper was scared to leave us. This time he just followed his brother to the back...just like a grown-up little boy.

Speaking of the dogs...as you know we have two. We also have a cat. Three animals translates to a lot of hair. Last time I vacuumed, smoke started coming out of it. As you can imagine, it gets a lot of use, and it finally had enough. Unfortunately, that meant it has been a couple of weeks since our floors have been cleaned. Today, the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser came to our house. It is so nice to have carpet without a thick layer of hair on it. Such a sweet simple pleasure...

The training officially begins...

I completed my first training run for the Gary Bjorkland 1/2 Marathon. I only had to run 2 miles, so I tried to run fast. My goal this year is to obtain a personal best time of 2 hr 13 min. -- that shouldn't be too hard. All I have to do is run 10 minute miles or better, and that's done. My big audacious goal is to be done in less than two hours. I have no idea how I can run that far with a 9 minute per mile pace, but that's basically what I'd have to do. Today I ran my two miles between 9 and 10 minute miles. I guess if I follow the training program and if I keep pushing myself to run 9 minutes miles, then I'll be able to do it. A lot of actually comes down to staying motivated to train consistently through the race. And I guess, whatever happens, just finishing three half-marathons is a pretty big accomplishment...

No turning back now!

The Monday Morning Blahs...

It's Monday morning. I'm back at work. I don't have any motivations to actually work quite yet. My Outlook is being ridiculously slow at updating this morning, so I can't get through my emails without it taking a minute or two to show the actual email.

My weekend was good, and as usual, went by too fast. We spent all day Saturday at the Senate District Convention. And I mean, all day -- from about 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. After that, we went to one of my favorite restaurants. A little local place called "The Lake House Grill." From the outside it doesn't look worthwhile. It's in a plain concrete building, attached to a bait shop. In fact, my parents would not go there for a long time based on its outside appearance. I finally convinced them to go, and we all enjoyed it. Dave and Dad had the prime rib special. My mom had a rack of ribs. I had a Cajun spiced-crusted walleye with sweet potato mashed. Yum!

Sunday was a really nice day. I got caught up on the dishes and the laundry. Well, almost all the laundry...but for the first time in a while, we don't have baskets of unfolded, clean clothes all over our bedroom. All the clean clothes are put away! For lunch I met Rachel and Bobby at Figlio's for Happy Hour...$2 drinks and apps. I had delicious mini-burgers. After hanging out with them and catching up with what's new in Rachel's and Bobby's world, I headed over to my sister's house. Becky and Emily were at a class, so I hung out with Steven and my Amanda, who's been sick for a while. It made me happy that she still wanted to see me. And it's kind of nice to hang out with my niece when she isn't jumping all over the place with excitement cuz your there. She just sat on my lap for a while, she showed my her coloring journal, and we ate some chocolate. It was lo-key and nice. Then I had to head home, so Dave and I could go run. I was awfully proud of Dave today. He had to run his longest distance yet...6 miles. I could tell he was really pushing himself because he kept bumping up the speed faster and faster. Since he had to run so far, I decided I should run a longer distance too. So I did 3 miles. The Gary Bjorkland 1/2 marathon training program officially begins today, so I don't have to run 6 miles for a long time. I was pleased with my run, considering I felt dehydrated the whole time. We went home and Dave made a scrumptious dinner. Then we just relaxed the rest of the evening...trying to savor what was left our weekend...but ultimately unable to stop the hands of time...and now here I am on a Monday morning...back at work...

There you go -- a long and quite boring post, with all the details of my weekend. Hope you have a good week!

I'm going to state!!!!

Today I was elected as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic State Convention! Woo woo!

We had our Senate District Convention today. It was a long day. Very long. At the end of the convention, you elect the state delegates. You have to do this thing called a sub-caucus. Basically, everyone divides into groups based on the candidate and issues that they like best. The number of delegates is divided up between those smaller groups on a proportional basis. My sub-caucus elected one male and one female delegates, and one male and one female alternate. It was pretty competitive, because basically everyone wanted to go to state. All the people trying to get chosen as a state delegate had to give a small little speech about why they wanted to be chosen. Yes, I who hate public speaking. I did it. And I got elected! It was super exciting. Although I do have to thank my mom, because she was in the same sub-caucus as me and at the end of her speech, she said she'd withdraw but wanted people to vote for me, her daughter.

My sister, Becky, got elected last weekend as a delegate from her district convention. It'll be awesome to go with her to the state convention. Rachel's is in a couple of weeks and I hope that she gets to go with us!

My accomplishment for the day...

At the salon today, I was reading an article about...I guess it was about building confidence...or appreciating what you have...or avoiding depression...or getting rid of stress...I guess I don't remember the right topic after all. Anyway, I mention this article because it says that each day you should think about what you accomplished each day, instead of creating to-do lists. The accomplishment list apparently helps with all those things I just mentioned (building confidence, avoiding stress, etc.), where as creating to-do lists tend to create stress because you have more to do. So here's my accomplishment today -- I got my hair highlighted. (I'm sure there's other things...just the usual taking care of the dogs and working....although at work I made great progress on one particular project I've been trying to finish.) Here's a photo of my new highlights! I love them!

I'm in!

Just got the acceptance email! I'm officially registered for the 18th annual Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon on June 21, 2008!

I'm waiting to hear from some of my other crazy runner friends if they got in. Here's a list of people that I know entered the lottery for the half-marathon: sister, Rachel; BIL, Steven, cousin, Ginny; and friend, Dan. So far I know that both Ginny and Dan got into the race too. It'll be fun to run with others and of course having family and friends watch us race and cheer us on.

I'm glad I got in the race, so I don't have to consider running the full-marathon that I accidently signed up for a couple weeks ago...Haha.

My training will officially begin now...

Only 108 days and 17 hours until race time!

Awesome!

Tonight was awesome. That's the best way to describe it. Awesome. Tonight Dave and I were the lucky beneficiaries of two company tickets to the MN Wild game. These weren't just any seats. They were on the glass. They came with a parking pass. They came with access to The Fishing Lodge. BTW...The Fishing Lodge is like this secret underground bar beneath the stadium seats. Inside The Fishing Lodge...free drinks. Who goes to a sporting event and gets free drinks?! Yes, Dave and I felt really, really lucky tonight. And don't ask me how much seats like this cost. Okay, ask me. They are $225 each. Each! And you can't buy single game tickets...if you want these, you have to buy season tickets...with a price tag of more than $9,000 each. Each! That just boggles my mind. To make the night worthwhile, the Wild won! It was a close game and went into overtime, which made our two hours of heaven last a little bit longer, so it was all good. I took a lot of photos tonight. Here's a few...

The Fishing Lodge...A view from the upper level...

Watching the game...

NHL All-Star, Marian Gaborik.

Having a great time at the game!

Face off. Can you see the puck??


Skoula celebrates the game winning goal!

Celebrating the win!