That Lynn Girl

Rudi

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:52:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:18:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:44:00 +0000

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! :)

******************************************************************

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.

******************************************************************

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?

******************************************************************

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!

******************************************************************

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 :)

******************************************************************

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:18:00 +0000

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

half marathon (round 2) & other happenings...

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:02:00 +0000

school starts next week.
i'm not really dreading it. i love my professor (she teaches all 3 of my classes) plus it's my last semester, but it does mean i will have significantly less free time.

and call me crazy, but i'm going to start training for my 2nd half marathon tomorrow!!! yes, i am really going to do it again. i'm pretty excited about that too, minus the heat and humidity that i'll be running in for who knows how much longer.

this is my goal...

Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas!!!

i haven't signed up yet because i'm a procrastinator, but that's the goal. hopefully it'll pan out. anyway, it's on december 5th, which i am pretty much stoked about because that means training will be mostly in the comfortable fall months (if fall ever gets here), as opposed to the nasty winter months that i trained for my last half marathon in.

plus i've never been to vegas, so i think it would just be fabulous.

i am hoping to be a little more intentional with my nutrition this time around too. not that i really know anything about what exactly a runner needs to eat... but i wish i did. so if anyone has any tips let me know. i don't think i do too bad, but i would like to do excellent. or at least better.

i am planning to incorporate weight training into my workouts this go around as well. last time my schedule didn't really allow for it unless i got my butt out of bed at 4:45 to go to the 5:30am class... and we saw how well that worked out. but this time my schedule is going to be nice and let me go at 9am which is much better. so weight training, plus some core training, spin classes, and then of course running... will be my workouts 5-6 days a week for the next 16 weeks. HERE WE GO!!!

oh, i have signed up for the dailymile to keep track of my training. i figured that would be easier to update as i go instead of trying to remember everything for a post here once a week. i'm sure i'll still write about some of it here, but if you want to follow along with my training be my friend on the dailymile! :)

moving on..

yesterday (the 15th) was mine and josh's actual 1st anniversary.. or as i like to say, 12th monthiversary. i'm wondering if now that we've reached a year if that means i have to stop celebrating our "monthiversaries?" i mean we can have a 13th, 14th, 15th monthiversary... right? because i totally think we should.

speaking of that.. for our anniversary, josh got to go to costa rica!!! where, by the way, the high today is a wonderful 76 degrees and i'm stuck here in the hot as a mug mid-west. jealous. i'm not even sure how that works since he's down there by the equator and yet it's cooler there? but he had to go for work and wasn't very excited about it... even though i've seen pictures from his last "work-related" costa rica trip and they included zip-lining through the jungle and surfing. hmmm... ;-)

but... i miss him. i know i see him every single day for like hours at a time and most of the time we don't do anything super exciting.. just cook and eat and watch tv. and maybe take the dogs for a walk. but it's the simple things in life like that that i love... and miss when they're gone for a bit. good thing he'll be back on wednesday :)

come home soon, joshie poo! the kosmo and i miss you! :) and bring some of that perfect weather with you!

alright.. this post is getting long and random, so i'm off to do something productive! hope everyone is having a great monday!

my yoga boy :)

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:28:00 +0000

A year ago in June I noticed this cute boy in my yoga class at the gym who had really nice, muscular legs (first impression ;-)). Even though I went to yoga about 3 or 4 times a week, I only saw him at the weekend classes. I nicknamed him yoga boy because I didn't know his name. Sometime in July we started talking after the classes. He started coming to some evening classes because he knew I went to those :) Eventually I learned that his name was Josh and finally on August 15, 2009 (which was a Saturday) he asked me out to lunch at Chick-Fil-A after our yoga class.

My first date with my yoga boy.

And so we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. And the next week we went on a date every single night. To Zesto's... Fazoli's.. Cheddar's & a Bats game.. 4th Street Live... sushi.

And we haven't stopped :)

I never imagined then how different my life would be a year later.

I love my yoga boy. He's cute and smart and he inspires me to be a better person. He supports me and understands me and has helped me achieve things I never thought I could do.

Like run -- first a 5k.

Then a half marathon!!

And I know I've said it a million times, but I honestly never thought I could be a runner -- and I couldn't have without him.

And now we're starting on this little photography business journey together and even after years of wondering what I "want to be when I grow up" and people saying, "Why don't you be a photographer?" because I have a camera in my hand about 90% of the time, I've only recently realized that it really is a passion of mine... but I never thought I could really pursue it any further than just a hobby. And I'm not really expecting to do it full time or anything, but we're doing it as something on the side, just for something fun that we can grow in and do together... and we'll see where it goes. And I couldn't do it without him. And I love that he not only supports me in it but he loves it too.

And sometimes he surprises me... like on Valentine's Day when he took me to the Newport Aquarium to the meet the penguins because he knows how much I love them and I didn't know where we were going!

Or like on Thursday when I came home after a bad day and he said, "I have a surprise for you!!" but I had to find it.. my first clue was a picture of this box posted to my Facebook page:

With a caption that said, "Let the hunt begin!!!!"

So I searched the whole house (a few times) and finally found it in the upstairs linen closet.. after I had already looked in there a couple times. He surprised me with a brand new DSLR camera since I just sold my old one on ebay. Definitely brightened my day! :)

He's my yoga boy, my running coach, my business partner, and an awesome boyfriend and I'm so lucky to have him!

It's been a wonderful first year if I don't say so myself, and I can't wait to see where we go from here!

We started our 2nd year with lunch at Chick-Fil-A... you know, for old time's sake.

Doesn't he look happy... haha. I think that face means "Don't disturb me while I'm eating my chicken!"

he wanted me to do pigtails... ? :)

We had our usual... chargrilled chicken sandwich & sweet tea for me and a #1 with a fruit cup & diet Dr. Pepper for him. And, as usual, he shared his mandarin oranges with me because he knows how much I like them.

Then we went to see Dinner For Schmucks (definitely recommend it! I laughed the whole time!!) and grabbed some Starbucks, because that's how we roll.

Thank you for the past year, Josh! I love you!!! :-*

being sick is kind of lame.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:58:00 +0000

sorry for the lack of updates recently.
i'm not even sure what to say right now.
probably because i haven't been able to talk for the past 48 hours.
i don't have strep though, so that's good. but i have no idea what it is.
it started as a scratchy throat, so i just thought it was allergies... until it progressed into an all out sore throat complete with loss of voice.

do you know what my favorite part about being sick is?
i can't do anything.
okay, actually that's my least favorite part.
and it seems like when i can't clean, no one else will do it for me.

actually, these photos were taken last week before i was sick.
so i cleaned up this mess on friday...
and he's already started another one.
it's all over the whole house.
kosmo thanks you for these stuffed toys, aunt mandy. ;-)

so that was pretty much my weekend.
stuck in bed with cough drops, water, and a sore throat.

i did manage to make it out of bed for a few hours to attend kate the great's 1st birthday bash.

(her mommy works with my mommy and also went to high school with josh.. crazy!)
it sure was a happenin' party!

so anyway. sorry this post is kind of lame.
that's what happens with you're sick.
being sick is kind of lame.
but lots of exciting stuff coming up soon, i promise!

until then i am going to hang out here on the couch and watch some more tv.
hey, at least i've been able to move out of the bedroom! that's a step in the right direction.
be back soon!

happy monday!

Life is Good

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:54:00 +0000

My mom got me this little Life is Good knickknack last week while she was out of town and I sat it in the kitchen window as a daily reminder that... life is good. It is good indeed.

It's incredible and wonderful and miraculous and tremendous and magnificent and I just want to soak it all in for the short time that I'm here. This summer has not-so-subtly reminded that life is also short and can change in an instant. It started in June when a guy that worked at the gym was killed in a car accident. I didn't know him personally, but it kind of shook me up because he was so young and I was used to seeing him every day and then just like that he was gone. Then last month a friend of a friend, whom I also don't know that well, got paralyzed from the neck down from a boating accident. I can't even imagine. This past weekend I attended the funeral of a young girl who passed away much too early, she was younger than me. I didn't know her either, but she was the daughter of one of my mom's friends.

And so today, even though bad things sometimes happen to good people, I am thankful and happy and blessed. And trying to not take anything for granted. Enjoying the small things and the big things. Like spending time with friends that used to be family that I'm thankful can still be friends.

Friday we went boating with my ex-step-dad, Mark and his girls, Josie and Emily. Oh, and the dogs of course.

Mark's dog, Mack, who is also a Boston Terrier, was a much more seasoned boater than Kosmo.. or Tobey, who both took a little while to warm up to the whole thing. He'd sit on the edge of the boat like a hood ornament, while Kosmo tried frantically to get back inside the boat through the window, and Tobey wouldn't even think about coming outside while the boat was in motion.

We enjoyed a nice ride on the boat until we docked for the afternoon. Then it was time for stick wars, swim lessons, jet skiing, and exploring.

We gave the Kosmo some more swim lessons and he has pretty much turned into a pro!

And it was the sweetest thing.. as Josh and I took off on the jet ski for the first time, Kosmo ran from the shore and swam as fast as he could trying to catch up to us. Little guy isn't the best swimmer but he was going to swim his little heart out until he couldn't swim anymore just to keep up with us. That's loyalty right there, and that's why I love dogs.

It was so good to see them all again. I can't believe how big the girls are getting. And so beautiful! Emily (above) is almost 12 and will be in middle school this year... Josie is almost 15 and starting high school! I was Josie's age when we first met them, and Emily was in diapers. Crazy!

This day was the perfect beginning to a delightful weekend that included three of my favorite things: running, photography, and ice cream cake!

On Saturday I kept my one-race-per-month trend going by squeezing in a race on the last day of July. How's that for procrastination? :)

I ran the Grand Slam 4 Miler with Erica.

We also got a new lens on Saturday.. the 70-200mm. That bad boy is HEAVY. And huge. Josh had to buy a new bag because it wouldn't even fit in the old one. And if you use a tripod with it, you mount the tripod to the lens instead of the camera. That's how big it is.

So naturally, we had to go try it out on the way home.

And later that night we took it down to the Falls of the Ohio where Kosmo and I got to work on our modeling skillz...

And then? Torrential downpour! It started pouring all of a sudden, which would have been fun if we didn't have expensive camera equipment with us. We were drenched by the time we got back to the car!

The new lens also came in handy at the photo shoot we did Sunday morning with our friend Taylor and her husband and their cute puppy Barley.

I learned one thing about photographing dogs... it's almost as difficult as photographing babies. Many of our photos came out like this:

Barley also thought the case for the light reflector made a good toy and us trying to get it back made a good game.

She was such a cute puppy though and since she listened about 83% of the time, we got a lot of great shots! Here are a couple of my personal favorites..

Thanks for letting us take photos of your cute little family, Taylor! We LOVED it! :) I'll post more once we get them all edited!

Oh, and the ice cream cake? We ate it last night for Mandy's (Josh's sister) birthday! Would you believe I forgot the camera? I was so tired yesterday. We also forgot her card and present. Must have been totally exhausted from that strenuous 4 mile race on Saturday.

So... that's that. Happy August!

life is good :)

The Grand Slam

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:06:00 +0000

In some ways I feel like these race reports are all turning into the same thing: I showed up somewhere early, ran a few miles with a bunch of people, then went home.

Which, I guess is essentially what races are.

Most of them are just 3-5 miles, nothing overly exciting but there must be some reason I continue to shell out the $20-ish each month to show up somewhere early and run a few miles with a bunch of people.

I'm not sure what it is. It keeps me motivated. I'm still continually amazed at my own progress as a runner -- 10 months after starting on this journey -- even if I'm not super fast and did run that 4 mile race this weekend at the same pace I ran the half marathon. I know I say it all the time but this whole running thing has been so amazing for me. I never thought I could be a runner, and now here I am, I finally stuck with something that's challenging and yet so incredibly rewarding. Ten months ago I ran my first 5k and a half marathon was a very distant goal... and now, I'm two weeks out from starting to train for my 2nd one.

It's amazing what your body is capable of. I'm so thankful for this... for the ability to run, for the friends I've made through it, for the accomplishment it brings me, and for what I've learned about myself. I hope I never forget where I started.

Okay, enough sap. It's not like running is my boyfriend. Here's another boring race report.

I woke up early Saturday morning, crossed the river, and ran 4 miles with a bunch of people.

I actually ran with Erica. It was also her birthday! She's a better person than me for running a race on her birthday. I'm pretty sure all I did on my birthday was eat ice cream cake.

The weather all week was HOT & HUMID so my expectations for Saturday were the same. Luckily my plea to the weather gods must have worked because the temperature was around 70 degrees and definitely not humid :)

Even though the weather was under control, I was still totally unsure of how the race was going to go considering I still haven't been running any more than 3 miles at a time or on a real regular basis.

The course was pretty boring - 2 miles out then turn around and come back. Erica and I ran the first 2 miles at a good, consistent pace but around mile 2.5 we stopped and walked for a few seconds. My sense of smell is heightened when I run and the slightest smell can make me feel nauseated. Apparently there were horses around and it sure smelled like it... or their waste rather! We ended up walking longer than we needed to because we started talking and catching up. Oops!

So we lost a bit of time, but still came in around 44 minutes. Over all, I thought it was a good run and I'm happy to know that at least I haven't been lazy enough to have to totally start back at square one :)

I promise more exciting running stuff will be coming up soon and you might actually believe me if I tell you I'm a runner again! I'm planning to start training for my next half marathon around August 16th! CAN'T WAIT.

Stats:

Grand Slam 4 Miler
July 31, 2010

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 44:19

How to Be A Runner in the Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:17:00 +0000

The title of this post is totally irrelevant because I actually have no idea how to be a runner in the summer. I really don't. All I know is that this summer has been incredibly too hot for me to run. Thank goodness I'm not training for anything.

I've tried to keep up with running at least 2 times a week... but most of the time those runs have only been 1.5-2.5 miles.

So, I did the only logical thing: I signed up for a 4 mile race on Saturday (even though there's also a 5k on the same day. Apparently I like to torture...I mean challenge myself!) Because that makes sense. My weekly mileage has been averaging a measly 3-5 miles, so why not run 4 at once? BRILLIANT!

Or I may die. Whichever.

My only hope is that I made it through that brutal 10k back in June and it was humid as a sauna that day, too... so surely I can make it through 4 miles, right??

So yeah. I indeed did run 13.1 miles just a few short months ago, and I'm glad I blogged about it because if you had seen me on my run this morning, you probably wouldn't believe that I could run that far once upon a time. And I used to run 4 miles for speed work and I would do 8-11 mile long runs and 7 mile tempo runs like it was nothing... and now I am wondering if I can complete a 4 mile race, which by the way, is on a flat course (thank goodness!!!!).

Eh, whatever. I know I can do it. It will just probably suck a lot at the time and I may walk a lot and I definitely won't PR... oh wait, I actually will because I've never done a 4 mile race before! Sweet! I knew there was a reason I went with the 4 mile race instead of the 5K ;-)

Here's to hoping the weather gods have mercy on me and let the humidity take a day off on Saturday!! Send good thoughts.

*photo of my no-longer-calloused running feet :(

p.s. after reading some old posts about my half marathon training, i realized that i actually miss it. i never thought i could actually like, or MISS running. it's weird. i miss having to get up early to go run and having an ultimate goal. when i think back on my first half marathon, i still can't believe that i actually did it. i can't believe that i stuck with my training program even when it got hard, and that i met my goal. and i can't wait to do it again!!

smorgasbord

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:04:00 +0000

sometimes when there's nothing to cook for dinner we get out all the ingredients & leftovers from the fridge and have a smorgasbord of food for dinner instead and clean out the fridge in the process.

well, i'm cleaning out the fridge here on the blog with a few leftovers that haven't been posted about yet.

first of all, for everyone who was asking, this is the photo that ended up winning the jamaica photo contest:

and we're planning on taking our free trip in december and i'm hoping that the trip to the nice warm, tropical caribbean in the middle of winter will keep that freezing cold, wintery funk away.

(the photo was also used in their july newsletter.. pretty cool!)

in other news, now i'm going to tell you about the time i fell down and went boom.

i had a syncoptic episode on monday night for the first time in my life AKA i fainted. it was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. or at least that's happened to me this week. i've never experienced anything like it before. i took a shower after i got home from the gym and as i was getting out i started to feel dizzy (this happens to me somewhat frequently.. usually after i've been sitting or laying down for awhile and I get up too quickly) so i didn't think anything of it. and then apparently i blacked out for a moment and i don't remember anything until i hit the the shower door/floor like a ton of bricks! i got a pretty cool battle wound from it:

i have named him Gnarly.

so anyway. it hurt like H-E-double-hockey-sticks. it's mostly the huge bruise underneath that hurts though since i landed pretty much right on my shins. my other leg made it out unscathed except for a huge knot and bruise.

dr. josh took good care of me and cleaned it out with rubbing alcohol immediately even though i told him it was already clean since i was getting out of the shower. duh. then he put New Skin on it... which made me wince in pain and whine like a toddler.. he's a saint for putting up with me :-D

Gnarly made my 5:30am weight training the next morning a little difficult, but i made it through. and we also saw this on the side of the house on the way to the gym:

what the heck is that thing... besides freaky lookin'?!? josh named her Mothra.

and i just realized we have a weird tendency to name ev-er-y-thing.

moving on.

speaking of moving.

kristen moved back to tennessee this week, although this time it's a little more permanent, as she has gotten a big girl job there and isn't just moving for school this time! i was not-so-secretly rooting for her to get a job locally so I could have my best friend back, but i'm super excited for her especially since teaching jobs are so hard to come by lately. congrats, kristen.. but we will miss you! :O(

(i was gonna write a long sappy post about how we've been best friends since we were 15 and blah blah and when in the world did we get old enough to graduate from college have real jobs?! when we first met our biggest problems were our pimples & braces and how we were gonna pass calculus class. but anyway, i didn't -- but i love you kristen, even though we didn't get to hang out much this summer and you are moving back to tennessee. i'll keep a look out for a teaching job here for ya ;-))

oh, i forgot to tell you all what a handyman josh is.

i found this shelf at lowe's that i decided i liked so i snapped a picture of it on my phone and sent it to him to see if he liked it too. he said he did, but he said, "if that's what you like, i can make that!"

keep in mind, this was on like the wednesday before my birthday, which was on a friday. so, i didn't wanna burst his little macho man i-want-to-do-it-myself bubble, but i kind of wanted it done before my birthday party, which you know, was why i was waiting until the last minute to find something.

and he replied, "i could have it done by then!"

"could you have two of them done by then?"

well, he had 3 of them done by then...

3 homemade shelves. i love them! and they are even better quality than the ones from lowes :)

and as you can see i finally put a picture in my shadow box!

eventually we're gonna hang all of our shadow boxes on the wall above the shelves.

and other than that, we've just been enjoying the little things on these 100+ degrees days... like central air conditioning, ice cold water, and my baby boy..

who i get all to myself for the next few days since my mom is outta town!

hope everyone is stayin' cool!

Camp-In Sleepovers & 30th Birthdays

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:44:00 +0000

I told you it was birthday month!

My birthday week was immediately followed by Amylyn's (Josh's sister) birthday week and I don't know if she celebrated all week like I did (which she should have!) but I know she at least partied it up on Friday night and Saturday.

We watched her munchkins on Friday night. As in overnight.

After a popsicle-eating, helicopter-twirling, balloon-chasing evening, we built a fort on living room floor and watched Where The Wild Things Are -- which, by the way, is not exactly what I'd consider a great childrens' movie, although Gage and Morgan informed us they had already seen it anyway.

Since we didn't start the movie until 9:30, I expected the kiddos to fall asleep. But they didn't. So we watched the whole movie. Which was over after midnight. Which last time I checked was really late for me... let alone the 3 and 4 year olds.

Needless to say, morning came pretty fast, especially after a night of ~~sleeping~~ tossing and turning on the hardwood floor.

But it was fun!

The remnants of our fort... all 4 of us plus Kosmo slept under there. It was cozy. :)

In the morning, Gage and Morgan danced and played, while Unc made pancakes.

I love his pancake-flipping focused face with the tongue sticking out :-p

He caught it every time!

That afternoon it was party time and we celebrated Amy turning 30!

And Mo Mo ate all the bananas!

Seriously, I think she is turning into a little monkey! We started off with 6 bananas in the fruit basket and by the end of the day there were only 2 left.. good thing we got extra bananas this week!

I am loving that July has turned into a month of celebration... of freedom and birthdays and summer and life.

I wish the weather would cool down a little though so I could feel like a runner again. I am pretty sure that by the time it's actually decent enough to run outside again I'm going to have to start from scratch! Okay, not really, but seriously... I can only run about a half mile comfortably right now, and 2 miles seems to be my total limit. But don't worry, running friends, I haven't let it go completely and my next half marathon plan is in the works! So running posts and half marathon training will commence again soon... just wanted to throw that out there since I know some people read/started reading my blog waaay back in the day when I was training for a half marathon and pretended to be a runner ;-)

In the meantime, I am enjoying the last month of summer freedom! I can't wait for what's in store! It should be fun.

Happy Birthday, Amy! I hope it was fabulous! Enjoy your 30's! :)

24 before 25.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:31:00 +0000

i had so much fun with my 23 things list that i wanted to do it again. so... here are 24 things i hope to accomplish before july 9, 2011 aka my 25th birthday! (whoa! hello, mid-twenties, where did you come from?!)

go sky diving.
graduate college.
go horseback riding... preferably on the beach.
go on a picnic.
dance with josh.
give blood. (maybe i'll get it done this time!)
get a birthday calendar and send family birthday cards.
run a half marathon in another state.
go on a girls trip with my mom (and cousin if possible!! and we should make it an annual thing... just saying :))
go to chicago (never been!)
go camping.
get the craft room set up... and use it!
make s'mores in the fireplace.
visit cousin at her house in argos.
run across 2nd street bridge.
go strawberry picking.
plant a garden...and not kill it.
see a play.
go salsa dancing with the gang on sunday.
keep up with my one race per month trend.
start a christmas tradition.
do more photo shoots for other people.
have a tennessee friends reunion.
read a novel.

hopefully i can get them all done! i have nearly a year this time, so maybe i can do a little better than a C average! :)

the ones i didn't do..

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:42:00 +0000

(this picture has nothing to do with my list... but i took it yesterday on the way home from josh's parents' house. we told kosmo to sit and apparently he thought in my purse would be a good place to do so....)

after four birthday celebrations, several people have asked me how i did on my 23 things list. several people that i didn't know read my blog, by the way. hello blog stalkers! welcome! feel free to come out of the woodwork and comment once in awhile. i promise i don't bite! :))

the verdict: i accomplished 17 of the 23 things. not bad i suppose.

i didn't...
give blood.
spend a day with my favoritest cousin before she got married.
run or plan a half marathon out of town.
print & organize 2009 & 2010 pictures.
start a 2010 scrapbook.
or get my nails done professionally.

in all fairness, i have ~~excuses~~ reasons for not completing all of these. and normally i probably wouldn't try to make excuses for things, but this is my blog so i can do what i want ;-) besides, i'm not making excuses, i just feel you guys deserve an explanation for why those things didn't get accomplished :) or something like that...

okay, i really have no excuse for not giving blood other than i just never got around to and that i was scared. i still plan on doing it though. some day...

my girls' day with cousin was planned, but it got snowed out.

we are still talking about tentative marathons & half marathons for this coming fall/winter, just haven't set anything in stone. plus it's kind of hard to think about running another half marathon when i can barely run 3 miles right now, it's just so hot and humid! but right now the major possibilities include: vegas (december), philly (september), and akron (september). personally i'm rooting for vegas because it gives me the most time to train for it and i just think it would be totally awesome since i've never been there, but we'll see....

as far as pictures and scrapbooking go... i go back and forth with wanting to scrapbook. it's time consuming and expensive, but it is fun and i think, worth it, once it's done. i think it will be easier to do once i get the craft room all set up and have everything in one place. and find a printing company that i am totally satisfied with. does anyone have any suggestions? i like to edit my photos, and while they look good to me on my computer, it seems like once i have them printed out they don't look as good.

aaaand last but not least, i was going to get my nails done on friday before my party but since i ended up having to work, the afternoon just kind of got away from me.

so that's that.

having this little list was fun! it helped me to be more intentional with my goals, even if they were mostly small and seemingly insignificant. and it was fun to cross things off and feel accomplished even if all i accomplished was going for a walk in the rain, trying a new recipe or taking pictures in a photo booth. (although i did cross off some major goals like running a half marathon and completing the triple crown!!! sometimes i still can't believe i did that. or that i want to do it again.)

and yes, i'll be back with a 24 things list. it's currently in the works :)

p.s. keep scrolling down if you missed the birthday post.

twenty-four.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:08:00 +0000

My birthday was absolutely fabulous.

I have spent the past 4 days celebrating the fact that I'm now 24... and I didn't even know turning that age merited such a wonderful celebration, but I'm not complaining.. I have been left feeling filled to the brim with love and happiness. If it's any indication, I think 24 will be a wonderful year.

It started on Thursday. I met up with my mom after work to go shopping for the food and decorations for my party on Friday.... only to find out that we were actually going out for dinner with Josh. SURPRISE!

I thought it was a little suspicious when she packed a change of clothes and make-up for a trip to Wal-Mart, but hey, you never know who you may meet at Wal-....okay, no. Now you understand why it was suspicious.

We were originally going to hit up The Cheesecake Factory, mostly because it's right next to a mall that has a photo booth, and taking pictures in a photo booth is on my 23 things list... and time was running out!

Luckily we squeezed in #22 with only a day to spare and I didn't have to settle for our original jaunt in a photo booth... thank goodness!

(you can view a video of our photo booth experience here if you'd like... it kind of explains our faces in the last photo. a random little girl opened the curtain and tried to get in the booth with us just as it snapped the last picture!)

So after that we went to The CCF, but after a storm (that apparently only hit on that side of the river because I was unaware of the major power outages and trees down) their power was out so the wait was going to be awhile... so PF Changs it was! Oh, except their wait was even longer. So I remembered I had a gift card for Macaroni Grill, so that's where we went. Thanks for my birthday dinner, Adam! It was delicious! ;-)

Friday was my actual birthday. I ended up having to work, so #19 didn't get crossed off as planned, but that's okay... it'll happen one day.

I have to say, one of the coolest things happened on my birthday... Josh and I WON 1st place in the photo contest for the resort we stayed at in Jamaica!!!!! I couldn't believe we won... and ON MY BIRTHDAY. Pretty cool, right? First place wins 4 days, 3 nights free at any of the resorts in Jamaica (they have a few). Here are the photos we entered... not sure which one was actually the winner yet though but the consensus seems to be that it was probably the jumping photo.

That night I had some friends over for a little birthday cook out...

It was a perfect evening with hot dogs and hamburgers and a HUGE ice cream cake (that wouldn't fit in the freezer) and good friends and Wii playing and girl talk and pick-up lines courtesy of Ariel... I loved every minute of it. And THANK GOODNESS calories don't count on my birthday (week) because between all the celebrations we had ice cream cake, regular cake, cupcakes, and cheesecake brownies... and TONS of leftovers!

Saturday evening we ventured up to North Vernon for another little cook out at Aunt Kathy's house. We ate some delicious kabobs and then played bubbles with Gabrielle.

We also got to meet Brad & Merideth's new baby Asher.

He had the saddest little face when he cried, but I thought it was so cute!

AND we had cake with the most delicious cool-whip icing!

Thank you for inviting us up, Aunt Kathy! We had a great time!

Today we went over to Josh's parents' house to hang out with Gage.

We had fun coloring, playing with trucks, and doing puzzles. He picked out my birthday card and made me some of the famous cheesecake brownies! I've been hearing about them for almost a year now, so I was glad to finally get to try them... delicious! We tried to get Gage to tell us the secret recipe, but all we got out of him was that there was sugar, butter, and eggs in it.. not sure that those 3 ingredients mixed together would quite create delicious cheesecake brownies, but maybe?!

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate turning the monumentous age of 24 (I think I made up that word). I love you all.

My first maternity shoot!

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:35:00 +0000

Last week I took some pictures of Josh's sister Mandy for a little "maternity shoot." I've never done one before, but it was so much fun and I'm pretty happy with the results.

You can check out a few more of them if you want on my photography blog!

Thanks for letting us practice on you, Mandy! And thanks for being Mr. Lighting and helping with posing and even taking a few pictures, Josh! Annnnd thanks Shelly for letting us use some of your letter blocks! :)

the 4th.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:48:00 +0000

Sometimes holidays are stressful... but usually not ones like the 4th of July. I like holidays like that -- the ones that involve get-togethers with family and friends with good food and good times and even FIREWORKS! -- well, I guess most holidays do include all that stuff (maybe not fireworks) but somehow always seem to be a little more stressful.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the 4th this year was perfect. Unlike last year.

We started off the 4th with a trip to the lake at the family farm with the boys (Tobey & Kosmo.)

I love going there.. it's so pretty and peaceful and a nice little escape from the city, even though it's only 20 minutes away.

Tobey usually loves it too, but this time he staked himself out a nice little shady spot under the truck.

Save for one walk around the lake, I am pretty sure he was there all day.

Kosmo, on the other hand, was like a little fishy! Not at first though. As usual, when we'd throw a stick for him he'd get in the water to get it, but wouldn't get off the little ledge where he could safely stand.

Instead he lets Jake do all the hard work and then takes the stick from him after he gets it.

But this time, Josh decided it was time to have little Kosmo swim lessons so he could learn to get his own stick.

It seemed to work out pretty well. He finally got comfortable in the water and his big eyes would get even bigger when he saw the stick. It was like he was so proud that he could finally do it and didn't need big Uncle Jake to do it for him.

Little baby Kosmo is growing up!

....and then he and Jake would go after the stick at the same time. Not sure if they were helping each other or fighting over it, but it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

We spent the afternoon hanging out with Josh's parents, cooking hot dogs over the fire, playing with the dogs, going 4 wheeling and canoeing...

It was the essence of summer and I loved every minute of it.

Especially canoeing...

I think I was 12 the last time I went canoeing... and it must have been pretty obvious since Josh's dad said, "She can't steer that canoe!" when I went to sit in the back seat. Apparently that's where you steer the canoe. Who knew?! ;-)

I must have been that bad at canoeing since Josh was about to hit me with his oar and knock me overboard...

And look how oblivious I am!

Just kidding! He would never do that.... right Josh?!?!? Josh...???

We even took Kosmo for a ride!

And our wonderful afternoon ended with a great evening at our neighbors' party.

We had fireworks upon fireworks upon fireworks... and even more fireworks.

Including a monkey that I decided we just had to have for only 49 cents.

It was kind of a dud.

I'm thankful that the guys didn't do a repeat of last year. I hear there was a Roman Candle war that ended with Josh getting caught on fire!

Nikki and I later graduated to Roman Candles and then the sparklers seemed kind of lame in comparison.. but they take me back to my childhood and I still love them. plus they were good for some light painting! :)

A lovely little holiday, indeed. Hope your's was as well!

Oh, and in case you were wondering... as part of my birthday week celebration we went to see Toy Story 3. Two thumbs up, 5 stars, great movie... go see it!

And the birthday week celebration begins....

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:22:00 +0000

It's officially my birthday week!

I have decided that it's okay to celebrate for the whole week.... and through next weekend, since my birthday's on a Friday, of course.

First celebration? Dairy Queen was nice enough to send me a coupon for buy 1 get 1 free blizzards for my birthday!

So Josh and I went today... I got the golden oreo strawberry blizzard and he got mocha chip. It's been awhile since I've gotten a blizzard and they have gotten lots of new flavors since then.

The only downside was the tummy aches we had afterward! I usually only get a small (when I even get one) and they gave us mediums... plus we had sandwiches. Blarghhh. Not used to eating that much junk... they sure were delicious though! I can't wait for my ice cream cake next week! :o)

Hope everyone has a fun & safe 4th of July!

'tis the season...

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:09:00 +0000

...for birthdays! (apparently) and apparently birthdays = christmas because all week josh has been telling me that my "christmas present" has arrived.

happy july! holy cow, i can't believe it's july. where is the year going?!

this week has been busy and i've gone out in the evenings much more than usual which has been a nice little change of scenery. on tuesday we went out for sushi for our friend elise's 25th birthday.

totally forgot my camera, but stole these from facebook. thanks, elise!

wow, i need a tan!

we had "rock ice cream" (that's what i like to call it) just like we did in philadelphia. everyone else thought it was weird, but since we've had it before i knew what to expect. (it's kind of rubbery... a weird consistency for ice cream, but hey it's still ice cream so you know i will eat it!)

my hair got on my nerves so ariel pinned it back for me with her purple hair clip. thanks, ariel! i think it goes lovely with my outfit!

on wednesday i went out with josh's mom and sisters to derby dinner for a girls' night! we saw the dixie swim club... it was hilarious! i had so much fun! (and ate waaaay too much!)

it wasn't for anyone's birthday but mine and amy's are both coming up in the next 2 weeks!

i didn't bring my camera because i didn't know if photography was allowed or not, but luckily my new phone has an 8 megapixel camera. not as good quality as the DSLR, but i'm glad to have it to capture memories when the other camera isn't around.

in related news, i've jumped off the blackberry bandwagon and am now the owner of an android. the htc evo to be exact. it does way more than i'm used to and i'm still getting used to the touchscreen. texting on it is a little weird.. haha. i like it though!

back to birthdays, yesterday was my brother eric's 33rd!

happy birthday, brother! i love you and i hope your birthday was awesome!!! (photo from his wedding last july...)

and i think that brings us all up to speed with this week. i can't believe my birthday is in a week! that means i have just 7 days to complete all the things on my 23 things list... which means i have to give blood! yikes! we'll see if that happens... it may, thanks to erica who has calmed my fears a little bit with her recent blog post. but i need someone to go with me!! any brave and willing souls?? you know you want to! ;-)

don't mind me, i just created a photography blog.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:19:00 +0000

so... i have decided to create a little blog where i can post about anything & everything photography... it will mostly be where i post the pictures i take for other people.. but if i figure out how to do something really cool with my camera, or some really neat editing trick or something like that, i may post it there too. we'll just have to wait and see...

so, without further ado, introducing my little photography blog!

i posted abby's session on there, and the one i did on friday with shelly and her kids!

check it out if you want! i'll be adding more photos to it soon!

Babies and Birthdays

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:45:00 +0000

Phew! This weekend was pretty packed... I didn't even have time to get on the computer at all! Well, I'm sure I had time at some point, but that's the time that I feel that cooking dinner and watching a movie with my B is more appealing (we watched 30 Days of Night and I actually stayed awake the whole time! It was a little more gruesome than I expected). And since that's how I chose to prioritize this weekend, I'm now up to my eyeballs in photos that need editing, e-mails that need returned, a million facebook notifications, etc. And I just looked at my calendar for the next couple of weeks and it is BUSY! But with mostly fun stuff.

Speaking of photos... if you've been following along with my 365 day photo project, I have not updated the website in forever! I don't find it difficult to take a picture every day, but uploading them is a different story! Lately it seems they have only been making it to my flickr photo set.. you can check them out here! I'll get the website up-to-date soon, hopefully!

Anywho... on Friday I went to take pictures of Shelly's kids. We went to a cute little park down by the river that I didn't even know existed. It was a wonderful little place for a photo shoot, except for all of the mosquitoes!

Can I tell you how hard it is to get a good picture of three kids 3 and under? At first I was afraid that all the photos would turn out like this one:

Ian was not having anything to do with having his picture taken! He wasn't scared of me because he'd let me hold him, and he wasn't scared of my camera, he would just scream his little head off anytime we sat him down somewhere. He finally warmed up though and we got a couple decent pictures.

We spent Saturday afternoon partyin' it up, 7 year old boy style.

The wind kept blowing out the candles so we had to move the cake inside.

What party is complete without a pinata and Hulk hands?! I'm taking notes for my 24th birthday bash coming up in a couple weeks... Holy cow... am I really going to be 24?!

I spent Sunday afternoon at a party of the baby shower variety in honor of Josh's sister, Mandy.

It was pink overload, perfect for her little girl due in August!

There was delicious punch, that I could have drank all of, compliments of Josh's momma who gave me her "secret" punch recipe... but not her secret cheesecake brownies recipe, which I still haven't gotten to taste! Hopefully she brings some for my birthday... I hear they are delectable!

We played games...

...and after the very appetizing poopy diaper game, we ate some delicious cake!

...and then Mandy opened all of her gifts... she got so much stuff! (there's a whole table of stuff not pictured!)

I don't think baby Avery will be missing a thing when she enters the world! Can't wait to meet her!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!!

summer, life, & dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:01:00 +0000

Monday was the first day of summer.

It was also the day my mom called me around 6 o'clock while she was still at work and said she had a really bad headache. A really really bad one. At first she just said she wasn't sure if she should drive herself home and then I casually suggested the Emergency Room (because my mom doesn't go to doctors, let alone ever want to go to a hospital) and Yeah. Yeah, I think that might be a good idea, she said. I knew it was a pretty serious headache then.

Her blood pressure had been high for the past week (that we know of, maybe/probably longer) and although her family doctor had given her some medicine to lower it, it had done nothing. Once we arrived at the ER and they took her blood pressure (210/125... normal is 120/80), they rushed us right back.

Long story short, we were only there for 3 hours, which I thought was good for an emergency room, and they gave her some medicine to temporarily lower her blood pressure to ease her headache.

We followed up with a cardiologist on Tuesday. He gave her some new medicine that seems to be working wonders and now we are just waiting for the results of her blood work to hopefully determine the cause of the high blood pressure. It's kind of a mystery considering she is pretty young, it doesn't run in our family, and she is relatively healthy. Hopefully they can tell us something soon!

Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, and e-mails! I know it's just a small thing to send a quick text or e-mail that says We're praying for you or Let me know if there's anything I can do.... I mean after all isn't that kind of what you're "supposed" to say? But I can't tell you how many times my phone would beep while we were at that hospital... with calls, texts, e-mails, and twitter notifications. And if nothing else, it just let me know that we were loved and thought of. And I really, really appreciate it so, thank you.

Also, I really love my mom. And I don't know what I'd do without her. I also love her attitude.

When we got home from the ER, she said You know what one of the worst things about today was? I was thinking something along the lines of that we had to go to the emergency room and that her blood pressure had put her in the "at risk for a stroke" range... but no.

I lost a whole field of carrots on my Farmville! I don't even want to go look at them, I just know they are gone!

She sure does love her Farmville. hahaha :)

.........

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, Josh tried to have a photo shoot with the boys, but clearly they were in no mood for pictures!

I just love this picture and I think it's my new favorite of the dogs. Tobey is just sticking his tongue out at the camera and Kosmo is all I don't want to do photos right now.

Ok, this one makes me laugh too...

Tobey looks like a little drill sergeant and Kosmo is standing up all straight... Sir, yes Sir! ... and he's missing his ears! Love it!

So, here's to summer! Seems like it's going to be a hot one!!

Papa's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Sometimes looking at pictures of my dad makes me want to kick and scream and have one of those really good cries where you just sob and your whole body shakes uncontrollably... because I miss him. I miss him so much. And then sometimes it simply makes me smile because I remember the good times we had together, I remember his laugh, his jokes, his advice, his hugs, his smell.

I can't believe it will be 10 years this December.

Ten years is a long time not to celebrate Father's Day... so this year I changed that! We celebrated Papa's Day, because goshdarnit Josh is a good papa to the Kosmo and Kosmo wanted to let him know how much he appreciates it!

So we baked him his favorite cake. A carrot cake in the shape of a dog bone (because dog bones are Kosmo's favorite).

And Kosmo even picked out the perfect Father's Day card. (The inside says It's in the yard.)

Happy Papa's Day, Josh! We hope you enjoyed your carrot cake!!!

xoxo

ten.

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:29:00 +0000

yesterday was mine and josh's 10th monthiversary!
we didn't do anything extraordinarily exciting...
just had some taco pizza from papa murphy's (delicious!), went for a walk (a short 5 minute one because it was hot and we're sallies) and watched some tv (persons unknown...i'm intrigued but not totally sold yet).
okay, so basically it was just like every other day.
except every other day isn't our whatever-monthiversary, so that called for a ~~special~~ silly family photo shoot!

happy 10th monthiversary, joshie poo! ;-)

warning: picture overload

noreply@blogger.com (Lynn) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Today I did an impromptu photo shoot with Abi (the sweet little girl I nanny for). It's been awhile since I've photographed babies and I have a couple of possible photo shoots in the works, so I thought it couldn't hurt to practice. Plus I didn't think Abi's mom would mind having some more pictures of her precious baby.

Warning: there may be a lot because I think she's just so darn cute and couldn't decide which ones to post!

So sweet!