HERE I AM AGAIN….complaining about another race… WHY do I even do them when I complain so much???? Because my “complaining” is actually my way of “LOVING” them!!

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 ??????????

I LOVE CHRISTmas!!!

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.

This is what I got Karl for his bday (Oct. 24th)…

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!!!

Today was my annual Boulevard Bolt Race… It was FREEZING out at 6:30a.m. this morning, but I endured! BD and Angie Dishon rode down to the race with us (BD participated, Angie stayed w/Karl as a spectator), plus we picked up my annual running partner, Lori Horner…OFF TO THE RACE!! This is a five MILE race…WAY out of my normal 5K (3.1) races that I do..but WELL worth it!!

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!!

I LOVE THIS RACE!! I’ve been supporting it (running in it) every year since 1997!! Yet, some how, every year I manage to get SLOWER~~ LOL

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)

WELL….not for ME…but it is for my hubby! Let me give a SHOUT-OUT to Karl because today is his 47th BIRTHDAY… he got up early and went out hunting and this is what he got!!

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!!

That’s the way all stories begin isn’t it??

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….??

SOOOOO….yeah, I’m one of those bloggers who blog and then quit and then blog and quit…sorry… but THINGS need to happen in order for me to blog about it… or do they?

LIFE AS IS… …. …. I’m done with all my 5K’s, half marathons, FIVE MILE runs…till FALL. Then it will start all over – but for now, I’m CHILLAXIN it. I love FaceBook, have met some new friends on there, some old friends and TONS of family. Now I’m into this FARMTOWN on FACEBOOK….UGGGG…..if you haven’t started it, DON’T. It’s HIGHLY addictive but OH SO MUCH FUN!! (well, go ahead, try it)

Our church, CROSS POINT COMMUNITY is opening up a new campus, our NORTH CAMPUS which will be in Goodlettsville/Hendersonville area so we’re pretty excited about that.

The 4th of July is upon us and we (Karl, Kyla and I) will be venturing over to St.Louis to visit my family for a few days and then on to Karl’s family in Buffalo NY for a few days…YIKES… that’s a lot of driving with a TEEN in our car!! PRAY FOR US… LOL.

OTHER THAN ALL THIS…. life is exactly where God wants it to be with us….and we are BLESSED and THANKFUL.

I’ll try to post a little more often, but I’ve probably lost all three peeps who were my “true followers”…. so now I’ll just ramble on for MY sake.

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT A COOL IDEA!!! This is a 5K race that I signed up for through active.com… I don’t know “Scott & Erin” but they really are getting married right after this race…. Scott ran the race (as you can see by my pics below) not sure where Erin was, probably over at the other tent getting ready for her wedding. It was a cute race…. if you pre-registered you received a t-shirt that looks like a tux… they also had wedding cake after the race…something I did NOT WANT after running 3.1 miles!!

This was held at Centennial Park and it was HOT HOT HOT out… AND quite hilly…more so than I thought it would be. Saw a fellow CrossPointer there, Andy Youssi (which for those of you out there who have little ones, Andy does voice characters in VEGGIE TALES!!) So Andy and I took a pic w/SCOTT. My friend Lori Horner ran it too…I had to PEER PRESSURE her into doing it… she hasn’t been able to run w/me on a consistent basis since she had her second child, TWO YEARS AGO…and she did FABULOUS!!

YUP…. I tend to start going crazy once I’ve gotten the taste for PAID RUNS! You’d think after doing the HALF MARATHON that I wouldn’t run again….and that’s what I said upon completion of the half marathon….however, I tend to forget the pain (UNLIKE CHILDBIRTH…which is why I only had ONE child….I can STILL remember every single vivid detail….but that’s for another post)… HERE are the pics of this Music Row Road Race, which helped out St. Jude’s Children…

I’ll be doing ANOTHER 5K on May 30th… called “Scott & Erin’s Wedding”…. can’t wait to see what this is going to be like!!

Here we all are….JEFF MOORE, LEANNE MATTINGLY, ME, KAY MOORE, LESELY VAN D, and Lesley’s little one, DYLAN

HERE COMES JEFF MOORE!!!! (check out his time!!)

I know it LOOKS like I was walking, but trust me….I was NOT!

Our “Y” friend, Leanne Mattingly….she had not run in a YEAR before this race…LOOK AT HER!

We are all cheering on little Lesley…it was her FIRST RACE EVER!!!!

Kay and I…. CHEERS TO OUR PHOTOGRAPHER, KARL!!!!!

ALL OF US… Jeff, Kay, Leanne, Lesley, me

WHERE THE HECK IS JEFF??? Oh, taking the pic…..

OBVIOUSLY this last pic was AFTER the race…. we did have a LOT of fun!…comments?????