Rudi

On Friday Josh took the day off because I had a little procedure done in the morning. My plan was to be lazy the rest of the day (doctor's orders) and lay around and watch movies and eat popcorn and ice cream.

However... things never go as planned. Instead, we drove all the way down to Shelbyville (about an hour away) and adopted this handsome little big fellow.


He's a 70 pound Boxer mixed with something that I've never heard of, but I think it's basically a pit bull. This freaked out both of our mothers, but rest assured, he's just a big baby who wants to be loved. He and Kosmo play great together and we've only heard him bark once... at the lake when he was really excited and wanted to go swimming.

Oh, we have named him Rudi.

Josh had seen him online (petfinder.com) and had driven down there one night last week to meet him. When he got there, they told him that he was just adopted. So he met a few of the other dogs that were there but wasn't totally sold on them. Then Friday, we were down in Shelbyville anyway to pay a speeding ticket so while we were there Josh wanted me to meet the other dogs he had met just to see what I thought. We saw that Rudi was still there, so we asked about him. Turns out, he wasn't adopted, he was going to be sent to New York to a foster home. So long story short, we adopted him, saved him from going to New York, and almost never even got the chance to meet him.

He fits in so great with the family.




Saturday we took Rudi on his first trip to the family farm... and I'm not sure, but I think he and Kosmo had a great time.


Even when sweet little Kosmo got thrown into the lake. Little buddy has improved on his swimming skills so much since the beginning of the summer! Now when we throw him a stick, he gets it himself and even gets so excited before going swimming!




He's come such a long way since the days when he'd wait for Jake to get the stick and then take it from him.














It was a fun day of swimming, four-wheeling, gathering fire wood with tiny lizards on it, and just enjoying some end-of-summer sun.

And at the end of the day we had two very tired, very happy dogs.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! I'm gearing up for another busy week! Here we go...

The Fiesta Fun Run was FUN!

On Saturday I ran the Fiesta Fun Run which was 3 miles. I was originally going to do an 8K race, which I was pretty excited about because I've never run an 8K before and with half marathon training starting up again, I thought the longer distance (even though I think it's still less than 5 miles) would be good for me. But my friend Jenn -- who I knew in elementary school & then we lost contact for like 12 years until Facebook recently re-connected us. Yay Facebook! -- just started running and wanted to sign up for it. So we did.

I'm glad I ended up doing the fun run instead of the 8K, especially since Saturday was SO busy! I was exhausted by the time the race started (9pm) so an 8K probably wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.


Erica, me, & Jenn. So glad we all ended up running it!

Erica & I ended up running the whole thing together. It was hot, humid, & hilly -- which are typically my least favorite race conditions -- but we made it through the whole thing, even the killer hills! I think since it was dark that helped me get through the hills because even though I've run that loop several times before, I couldn't really see them. Or it could have just been the excitement of a night race. Personally I think more races should be at night, it was super fun!


Our time was right around 32 minutes... which for 3 miles is a little slower than I would have liked, but I tried to start off slower since it was Jenn's first race and then factoring in the hills and the humidity, I think we did great! Plus it was a fun run so I wasn't really running for time anyway! (Am I ever??) Jenn finished in around 34 minutes which is a great time for her first race! (and the fact that she's only been training for a few weeks and is only used to running a half mile straight so far. She did awesome!)

After the race, we all met up at Qdoba... they sponsored the race and gave us free chips & salsa.


Me & Sheri.. one of my super fast running friends who's done like 12 marathons this year (ok, not really but she's done 4 or 5 I think) and her husband came in 2nd in the run.

We ended up hanging out until almost midnight... it was so much fun to just hang out with everyone. My friends and Josh's friends... talking about everything from running and races to photography and everything else. And Crystal and I decided we're going to do a triathlon. At some point. We just need a pool to practice in and some bikes. Considering swimming and biking are 2/3 of a triathlon, we should probably get on that.

Good times.

Stats:

Fiesta Fun Run 3 Miler
August 21, 2010

Distance: 3 miles

Time: 32:??

sometimes life moves faster than i can blog.

i am pretty sure i blinked and a week has gone by!

i picked josh up from the airport last wednesday night -- which was much more difficult than it should have been.
i've been to the airport a gazillion times but somehow i just passed that exit right on up.
and then, since me + driving in louisville don't get along too well (especially when it's passed my bedtime) it turned into a big fiasco that resulted in driving way out of the way, a few frustrated phone calls, and a few left turns (thanks, josh! ;-))
but luckily, my B and i made it home safely, and didn't kill each other in the process! :)

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on thursday we went to the hospital to officially meet baby avery for the first time!







then we came home and played with little our baby -- kosmo!





he ran around like crazy in the basement until he was totally tuckered out.

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on friday after i went to the gym i had lunch with josh.
i had plans of showering after the gym and actually getting dressed before said lunch date.
but josh left his sunglasses at the hospital the previous night so i had to go pick them up before mandy & joe went home.
then he also needed me to run by the house to pick up his laptop and bring it to him.
all of this = no shower for me.



i had originally picked subway but then spaghetti sounded good.
so spaghetti it was!
p.s. i love the spaghetti shop's garlic bread.
best ever.

then i got to be a visitor at josh's work.
i got an official badge and everything!


of course, my little badge didn't magically open doors like josh's does.

he gave me a tour of the whole place.
he's given me a tour before, but it was on a weekend when no one was working.
usually when people ask me what josh does, i don't really know what to tell them.
it all kind of just goes right over my head because i have no idea what any of it means.
but it makes a little more sense to me now that i've seen it in action.
it's actually pretty cool (not that i ever doubted....)

and of course, he was introducing me to all of these people... and i hadn't even showered.
and i wasn't wearing make-up.
and my hair was in a messy bun on the top of my head.
and i may have smelled a little funny.
i guess it's good that he doesn't mind introducing me to people (even one for "girlfriend approval") even when i haven't showered?

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saturday we woke up early (5:30am early) and drove 2.5 hours round trip for an engagement photo shoot.


i'll post more of these photos on the photography blog soon! i was really happy with how they turned out though, especially considering it kept raining on us!!

after we got back saturday afternoon, we went to petsmart to look at the dogs up for adoption. there was one we had seen on petfinder.com that was supposed to be at petsmart on saturday. she wasn't there, but we arranged to meet her on sunday and while we were at petsmart we got to take some pictures of the dogs for their website!


of course, i loved all the doggies and wanted to bring them all home! i just hope they all get a good home.

saturday night i ran the fiesta fun run (3 miles) -- it was a great time!! i will post the re-cap soon!

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sunday.... we did a newborn photo shoot with baby avery!




and oh my goodness she was so cute! so so so cute.
i can't pick a favorite of all the photos we took! (although, i do really like that last one)
i'll post more on the photo blog soon.
mandy & joe -- THANK YOU for letting me photograph your baby. i love love love her :)

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and then, with a million photos to edit and school starting... time has just gotten away from me.
busy busy busy... but i love it.
for the most part :)
(not really the school part.. but yay for it being my last semester!)

alright... i am going to update the photo blog so people (AKA my mom) can quit asking me where all the photos are! ;-)

happy wednesday!

Today is my favorite day.

I saw a quote somewhere the other day that simply said... Today is my favorite day.

So today... I am thankful for the sub-70 degree weather we had this morning and the opportunity to get in a morning run... even though as my first training run of this go-round, it was much more difficult than I was anticipating. But at least I did it. And the sun was shining. And the birds were chirping. And there was morning dew on the grass. And somehow while I was struggling to keep at the 8:40 pace... it was beautiful. It was new beginning... a new day... a new training season... almost a new semester. All filled with lots of new opportunities.

Today I am thankful for my mom and our relationship and how even though she's my mom, she's also my best friend. And we can have girls' nights which consist of pizza and pedicures and late-night chit-chat about everything and nothing.



We made a pizza and she stuck it in the oven and then left..."just real quick." She informed me that the pizza would be done at "about nine after..." so I should take it out around then and she'd be back right after that.

I should not be left alone with things in the oven if a timer is not set. A timer never went off (because she didn't set one) and I didn't remember the pizza until about fourteen after. Oops. I didn't burn the pizza (or the house down, don't worry Josh!) but I did almost totally forget about it.

Luckily, it actually tasted quite delicious! Guess those extra 5 minutes were actually beneficial.

After pizza it was time for pedicures.


We used this nail polish which I like to call candy apple red. Apparently it's really called Big Apple Red Creme, but whatever. I used to not be much of one for red nail polish, but lately I am lovin' it.


I am also lovin' these adorable little nail stickers we found!

I've still never had a professional pedicure (or manicure for that matter) but that's probably because when someone touches my feet, it sends me into a fit of laughter. Especially when they tell me to hold still! If you look closely, you can see little smudges that may or may not have been caused by uncontrollable laughing.

Today is my favorite day.
Today... all day at work I was chomping at the bit to leave. Which doesn't happen very often considering my job is to take care of this little bit:


However, today was no ordinary day because today, as soon as I left her house, I went straight to the hospital because Mandy was finally going to have Avery!

Today is my favorite day.
Today we welcomed new life.



I met up with Josh's family and we kept Mandy company for a little while until the doctor decided they were going to do a c-section. So we hugged Mandy goodbye and were sent to the waiting room where we all waited anxiously for Joe to come out with the baby.

The room was filled people who couldn't wait to meet this little baby who was already so, so loved. There were parents who were waiting to be grandparents and grandparents waiting to be great-grandparents and sisters waiting to be aunts. Cousins who were there for support and a little niece and nephew who were beyond excited to meet their very first cousin -- "Baby Avawy."

Finally after a few false alarms of nurses just walking by with wheelchairs, Joe finally came up to introduce us all to baby Avery!


We had about 5 minutes to ooooh and awww before the nurse took her to get weighed and measured in the nursery.

She was 7lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long! And just perfect and beautiful.


So we followed them down to the nursery and did some more ooohing and awwing as she wiggled around and yawned and was just so cute in all her newborn babiness. And Joe was such a proud daddy. And he had a conversation with her that we couldn't hear through the glass window, but how cool to see a new daddy just spend time with his brand new daughter. Such a precious moment.

And Gage asked questions like why is her tummy going up and down? and when is that machine going to show us her bones? I guess he thought it was an x-ray machine... so funny!


And even though Mo Mo had previously been scared of Mandy's big belly because she was afraid baby Avery was going to come out and get her, she decided that now that she was out, she really liked her.

There's something about welcoming new life into the world that is just...awesome. I love love love new babies. They are beautiful and perfect and it's amazing to me how one minute they are inside their mommy and the next they are out in the world.

Congratulations, Mandy and Joe! She is beautiful. I can't wait to get my hands (& camera) on her this weekend!!! :-D