This is my FIRST EVER – organized bike ride/participation for me. It’s called the HOW100.

Of course I did NOT ride the full 100 miles (CRAZY) – you could do any amount of miles you wanted…. I stuck with my “comfort zone” since this was my FIRST … I did the 21 mile ride – however, I ended up doing 23 miles because I took two wrong turns (THOSE little yellow arrows should have went all the way down the road and not stop at an intersection, leaving me to decide, left-right??LOL)

It was a VERY HILLY RIDE….and I did about die….not gonna lie. But next year…IT IS ON!!!

AND HERE IS THE FINISH LINE…. (but I did burn 1280 CALORIES) WOOP WOOP!!

I LOVE MY BIKE – her name is FAITH!

It’s almost 7:30a.m. and I get a call from Karl saying Kyla has been involved in a car accident. I had just turned my cell phone on and saw her text where she said she was AT HER BABY-SITTING GIG… that text was at 7:08 am. HOW could she be in a car accident? And what kind of accident? Fender bender??? Karl didn’t know….all he knew was she was being taken to Vanderbilt Hospital.

I immediately got up and threw some clothes on and just headed out 40 E… I had no idea how to get to the hospital.. I made a quick phone call to my BFF (who also went to the crash site and picked up ALL of Kyla’s stuff and found her cell phone and EVERYTHING!) and continue on. Then I get ANOTHER phone call, this time it’s the police officer- who, by the way, is SUPER nice… Mike Nieves with the Charlotte Pk. area police department. His first words were “Mom, slow down…. you will beat the ambulance there” and I immediately slowed down (not sure why, it’s not like he would have known either way) he told me Kyla fell asleep at the wheel… and that she has some injuries but nothing life threatening that he could see. I was somewhat relieved.

To sum this up…. Kyla suffered a broken foot (2 places), a small punctured right lung, a bitten tongue (which was really gross) and MANY many bruises and scrapes. She actually flipped her car… HOWEVER, she is alive and considering the damages to her, she is well!

Life could have been very different days after that accident….we COULD have been preparing her funeral… we COULD have been still up at that hospital with her being brain dead…. we could have been. WE ARE GRATEFUL to GOD that HE has allowed her to continue on this earth with us. KYLA knows and realizes how blessed she is. PLEASE do not take life for granted…as we all tend to do. It is short. Every night when I lay my head on my pillow, I am thanking Jesus. EVERY night. I never want to stop. We are grateful to ALL our friends and church family who was there to help us (especially to Tom Tyndall for coming up to the hospital on his BIRTHDAY to see Kyla)… a big MWAH! We are thankful.

BTW – HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!

Yes, it’s been a year… and I was SO looking forward to running in it again this year – HOWEVERRRRR…. I’ve had a few set-backs.

1. My back went out on me AGAIN- while at the gym, I decided to move a 45lb. weight (and I thought it was a 20lb. weight) and pulled my lower back completely out!

2. I SOMEHOW developed a form of VERTIGO!! WHUT THU????????????? (seriously, I thought that was just a Hitchcock movie… and NEVER thought it was REAL)

SO….I recouped from the back injury (slowly) and thought, well, I still have time to catch up on my miles… got in five…on my way. TILL WEDNESDAY, March 10th..

I roll outta bed and was like “WOW”…I am SO DIZZY! (no puns please) – so I think I just need to eat something (BIG MISTAKE)… I eat a cereal bar and banana… all is still spinning (and not in the cycling kinda way that I usually do-see FaceBook). So I try to get up and walk a little bit ….uh oh.. oh no…. oh no………say it isn’t so……….. YUP, it’s so… I AM THROWING UP…. BIG TIME! I’ll totally spare you the details.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, I am out of the running for THIS YEAR. I do go see a specialist TODAY (ENT) at 2:00…. yup, it’s been eight full days of non-stop spinning. I was able to get o a GP doc who gave me a shot of phennigran (however its spelled) and some Meclizine…. PLUS I have the BEST NURSE…Kay Moore…(she has this too)… I am forever thankful for her words of wisdom and for her taking great care of me!! Also to Angie Dishon for bringing Gatorade over to me when I so desperately needed it!! I LOVE YOU TWO!!

NOW….onto a better post… I GOT MY BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MORE BLOGGING ABOUT THAT TO COME…. when I can ride (and type longer)

I wasn’t too thrilled to be doing a “winter race”….as you will notice, I NEVER do winter races (and yes, anything below 40 degrees is considered a WINTER race to me)… however—- I have a friend who used to live here, MoPo (Melissa Poznanski) but now lives in Seattle and she asked me if I would run in a race with her….her FIRST RACE EVER! HOW COULD I REFUSE THAT???? The Poznanski’s are here visiting for several days and I LOVE helping people get started into running….. I TRIED to get her into it when she lived here but … the timing was not quite right back then.

I am SO PROUD of her accomplishments…. she is now HOOKED on races (and my five hour energy shots!!)… here are the pics… BD (Brian Dishon) is always up for a race…. he runs like a rabbit…and I’m not even kidding! CHECK him out too!! We actually had SO MUCH FUN!! Sure did miss my BFF’s! Well, there is always NEXT YEAR!!

ME, BD, MoPo

ME, MoPo, BD… GETTIN READY!!

CRAZY BD!!!! 23 MINUTES STRONGER THAN US!! Gotta love that hat though!!

MoPo coming to the finish line!! 30 MINUTES STRONG!!!

SLO-POK coming to finish line…teehee… 37 MINUTES WEAK…but still UNDER 40!

AND BTW, YES that little girl AND her mom beat me!!! LOL….

WHEN’S THE NEXT RACE????? I believe it’s the COUNTRY MUSIC HALF MARATHON….who’s in peeps ??????????

So this year… I am doing something different for all you bloggers/FB’er’s our there..

For the next two weeks (for ANYONE who wants to participate) please leave a comment on what YOU want for Christmas this year (WITHIN REASON PEOPLE)… I will RANDOMLY pick one of you and get you the gift you would like and mail it to you. JUST BECAUSE. Also, if you feel the need to…please explain why you want this particular gift.

Don’t look at it as “selfish” (as I know there are MANY people out there who do not receive gifts….let God take care of that too~ He’s taking care of this) just look at it as something GOD wants me to do. DO NOT BE A “BB”…. that means “Blessing Blocker”…. PLEASE!

And even though I can only choose one….for the rest of you who leave your comments/wishes….look at it as therapy for ya!! Pretend like I’m Santa and you’re sitting on my lap—–get in touch with your “inner child”….

Make sure I have a way to contact you too (blog, email, fb..whatever)…

YAYAY!!! I’m SO EXCITED!!

SO…WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR, FRIEND…

PS: IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU HAVE TO WRITE SOMETHING OR YOU CANNOT LOG OUT.

DO YA KNOW WHAT IT IS??

Can you see him laying in there???

It’s CALLED a “Lay-Out Blind” and its for duck hunting. You lay in this blind (supposedly disguised so the ducks can’t see you) and when the ducks are flying overhead and come in for the landing…you WHIP OPEN the blind and start shooting..

Here’s what that looks like…MINUS his precious Benelli

I think he’ll be SLEEPING in there…. he’s waving out of the side of it:

HE’S SO HAPPY!!

DUCK HUNTING OPENS TOMORROW!! Guess I won’t be seeing much of my husband for awhile…but that’s OK…. we get along better that way! (love you honey)…

This will be his coffin one day. Cheap, easy and that’s the way he wants it…. I finally found something (hunting related) that has a mulit-purpose to it. And in between hunting and dying, he can use it for when we get into arguments….no more sleeping in the dog house!! LOL (just kiddin)..

HAVE FUN ALL YOU AVID HUNTERS OUT THERE!!!

The three of us …

LORI, ME, BD

HERE COMES BD (which is Brian Dishon, for those of you who don’t know him well enough)-HE IS UBER-FAST!

LIGHTNING FAST BD! HE DOES 7min XXsec miles...AMAZING!

ANDDDD….HERE I COME…. (One HOUR 7 min. later- HOWEVER, just like the 1/2 marathon, I had to GO TO THE BATHROOM DURING THE RACE….so yes, I made a pitstop…took away from my time, but I still had a FABULOUS RUN!!)

MOI

I sure did miss my friends, JEFF & KAY MOORE…it just was NOT the same without them! PLEASE come back next year! And lastly, I could NOT do ANY of my races without my faithful manager/photographer/PR person/HUSBAND, KARL!!! He is absolutely the BEST at doing things like this… always holding everybody’s STUFF(jackets, cell phones, goody bags, etc)….always taking ME (and ANY of my friends who want to ride with us) to ALL of these events instead of HUNTING (which is where he’d rather be)…always taking the BEST pics (most of the time) and lastly always keeping the paparazzo at bay for me…(that’s a BIG one)…LOL

NEXT RACE: The Jingle Bell 5K.…. COME JOIN ME!!! Our friends from out-of-town will be here and joining in…Rob and Melissa Poznanski.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FAITHFUL READERS.… I know I’ve been so lax on posting lately!!

PRE-RACE Jitters… -oh wait, that’s cuz I took my five hour energy drink…LOL

PRE-Race JITTERS

MY FRIEND and BEST RACING BUDDY who does this EVERY YEAR WITH ME~NO MATTER WHAT… LORI HORNER

LORI AND ME...PRE-RACE

COMIN INTO THE FINISH LINE…. HAPPY- 37 minutes later…

FINISHING!!

LASTLY…. I ALWAYS go back to get Lori and help her finish strong!!!

Lori finishing up strong!!

UNTIL NEXT YEAR….. (well, GOD WILLING)

KARL’S BIRTHDAY BUCK!!

He’s actually crossed the line from Deer Hunting to Duck Hunting… so now I have to start buying him all kinds of duck stuff for his bday, Christmas, Father’s day… so today, I got him an Avery Lay-out blind…. looks more like a coffin to me!! YIKES…..

ENJOY YOUR BIRTHDAY HONEY!!! MWAH!!

Oh to go back to our childhood days! Life was much simpler – but God calls us to a higher calling…NOT simple. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like the phrase “Life Is Good”…. life isn’t good… GOD is good but life is not. It is only because of God that life is BEARABLE. When I hear that phrase, (LIG) I want to say to that person, tell that to the children who are being raped, beaten and starving all over the world, do you think they’d say Life is good??? But I keep that to myself because MOST of the time people don’t mean it that way and I would never want to offend somebody’s “good day” –

My husband, Karl, loves to go hunting. He says that’s the time he gets to communicate with God and really FEEL his presence- Myself, I feel Him through music…..isn’t it funny how each of us “feel” God in our own ways? I’ll be posting some pics on here of Karl and his duck hunts.. .. .. all his duck hunting buddies… and the dog they take with them.. its a sight to behold! The only thing missing this year is my bonus-son, Kyle. It’s a sad situation and those of you who know are praying and have been praying for him…. THANK YOU! We KNOW God has it….. and this story does NOT end with “and they all lived happily ever after”

How do you “feel” God….??