HBD Jeff, Happy Turkey Day and HBD to me!

 Last week had a lot of days to celebrate and we did just that. Tuesday was Jeff's birthday and he celebrated by spending eight hours in the car picking up Lucas from school. LOL he celebrated my birthday the same way yesterday taking Lucas back. We do what we have to do for our kids. 

On Wednesday, we had a birthday date at Merchants in Lawrence and it was excellent. We enjoyed our evening to ourselves before the holiday officially started. We hosted my family for Thanksgiving but we did it on Friday. That was so nice because I had a whole day to stay in sweatpants and clean.

On Friday, my mom and my brother's family came for Thanksgiving and we finally got to meet Christopher. He was born a couple of months ago and he is adorable! It was also great to catch up with the other kids, I can't believe how big they are getting! 

I'm so glad the snow held off till today and everyone was able to get back home. I guess decorating for Christmas will be on the to do list for this week! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! 

Alex meets Christopher

Our birthday cocktails!

The kids table!

We did see Zootopia two on Friday night. It might be better than the first movie! Jeff and I celebrated hosting a family holiday with another cocktail!

Aaron made me pancakes and I got breakfast in bed for my birthday. I thought that was super nice!

Ravens Won!

 Middle School soccer season is a short one. Alex didn't let me know he was playing until the week before practice started. They started in October and the city championship was tonight. For the first time ever the Robinson Ravens won the city trophy. Not only did they finish first they had a perfect 7-0 season.

Alex played varsity defense and had a lot of good plays and a few that made us shake our heads. He played with confidence and had the support of his team. This was a fun group of  boys to watch and I am so proud of all of them! 

Thanks Ravens, that was a fun ride! 8th grade is going fast, slow down a bit! 

Salina CrossRoads Race Review

Yesterday I ran the Salina Crossroads Half Marathon with some of my running friends. It was a great weekend of running and talking about running. We all agreed it needs to become a yearly thing.

Because of the long runs I did with Laura and Aron, I met my goal for this race. I wanted a 2:19 time or better. My gun time was 2:18:04, and my chip time was 2:16:06. The chip time is what I care about most because that’s when I actually crossed the start line. Since it was such a big race, it took me almost two minutes to start after the starting gun was fired.

My chip pace was 10:23, which is my best in recent memory. The temperature was cool, and it didn’t get windy until about an hour in. That’s pretty good because I was afraid it would be windy the entire time. Because I never bothered to look at the elevation chart, I was very surprised by one big hill and one long hill during the race. The funny part about the huge hill in the middle of the race was that they had bagpipers at the top of it. It felt like we were going into battle in Scotland.

Salina did a great job hosting a fun half marathon. The line for breakfast pizza was too long, but I did enjoy my slice of pie.

This was my last half of 2025, and I’m glad I was so happy with my race!

I always love a race with a free finish line photo!

The running gang 

One of my favorite hobbies is talking Kayleigh into half marathons!

I almost never take pictures mid race but this mural on the grain elevator made me get my phone out!

I'm so glad this race was Saturday and not Sunday. We beat the cold by one day!

New Stadium and New Deck!

Started November off with my first KU football game at the new Memorial Stadium. KU played OSU, and they got the win! It was such a fun atmosphere, and I think OSU fans are the best in the Big 12. We all cheered for our teams and no one got rude. We had OSU fans in front of us and to our left, and everyone was fun to be around.

The last game the boys and I went to was in Stillwater, and the Cowboys came away with the W. They were still so nice and gracious.

Of course, half the fun is the band, mascots, and cheer teams. I think there was something for everyone, and we all had a good time.

Our deck has been built for a while now, but we finally got the last coat of stain on it, and I really like how it turned out. It’s not a huge visible difference, but now you won’t fall through it because of rotten boards. Yay!

Enjoy today and tomorrow, it’s going to get cold in Kansas on Sunday!

I will cut in front of some kids to get a picture of Baby Jay!

First smores at the new house!

New Deck, it is solid! 

October Goals and Costumes!

It is the last day of the month, spooky day, and I am happy with my October goal progress! There are only two months left so it is time to start finishing some things up. 

Fall is a crazy time at work and I think it is very interesting that I get the most done when I'm busy. In February I ran 15 miles, this month I ran 81! Even if I could only be on the treadmill for an entire month, 15 miles is not enough. LOL 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween, I'm excited to see what kind of Trick Or Treater turnout our new neighborhood has. All five of our kids are dressing up. I missed a picture of Aaron. Alex sent his monkey picture to me and Daryl's... I stole...from Instagram. 😉

Read 24 Books 19/24

Finished three books in October!  Back on track with my reading goal. 

The Light We Lost, by Jill Santopolo was a book recommended by my library’s email newsletter, and they don’t usually disappoint. The book was well-written and follows two college students in New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attack. It’s one of those fictional love stories that left me frustrated with the female lead. The ending was interesting, but if you’re looking for a story where the woman doesn’t chase after a man who doesn’t deserve her, this isn’t the one for you. LOL

The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall gave me strong-woman vibes in spades! This fictional story about a daughter and her older mother (Polly was 50 when she had Willow) is both funny and heartfelt. Their generational clashes are hilarious, and Willow’s love for her mother is touching. I picked up this book at the Lawrence Public Library book sale and loved it from start to finish. Highly recommend!

My books just got better and better as the month went on. My last book for the month I read in four days! Anxious People by Fredrik Backman This book is so popular it’s already being made into a movie. Backman also wrote A Man Called Ove, and I loved that film (A Man Called Otto). I never read the book, but if it’s as good as Anxious People, I bet I’d fly through it.

There are ten different characters and ten different storylines, all wrapped up into a beautiful bow. I probably would have cried at the end if I hadn’t been sitting in a doctor’s office. I even took a picture of the last page because I want to read it over and over again.

I checked this one out from the Topeka Library, but I’ll probably buy it when I see it, my shelf needs this one. My favorite line of the book, "Worst hostages ever..."

Run 650 Miles 549/650

I ran 81 miles this month!! I have a half marathon in two weeks so I got in some serious training miles. I'm only 101 miles away from my goal. Not bad for a very slow start to the year, running wise. 

Money Goals

Fund 3-6 month ER Fund- Done April 2025! Yay for selling my house! 

Pay off Car - Done April 2025! Yay for selling my house! 

UFOs (unfinished objects) that need Finished 

T-Shirt Quilt (have the shirts)

Alpaca Quilt I got all of the lantern rows sewed on my Girl weekend this month. I am currently cutting out Alpaca pieces! 

Placemats - Done April 2025 

Alex and Daryl Photo Books 2021-2023 Just missing 2023 at this point. 

A Long Relaxing Weekend

I've been back in the real world for one day, and I'm already ready to be back at the lake! This last weekend was so peaceful and productive! I got to catch up with my friends, drink coffee, work on my llama quilt, read and run. It was such a great vacation! 

We also drove across one scary bridge --- Thanks Karen! 

The Bergmans went to visit Lucas at School and they had a pretty great weekend too! And it is cool outside, and the leaves are pretty and I am not dying on my long runs. Yay Fall!!! 

The view we had drinking our coffee and watching the birds!

Also in the backyard, a cliff.

Lunch in Eureka Springs, it was the witch festival...total coincidence! LOL 

Riding a trolley! 

The scary bridge we drove over. One car at a time! 

All the sewing I got done on Saturday. Yay!

My running buddy!

Siblings reunited! 

Lucas is now a full MMA cadet!