MMXI

Well, 2010 was a real beotch. I'm ready for only great things to come from 2011! God knows we've paid our dues!!!

Happy New Year 2011!!

I'm the worst blogger...ever!

I know, it's been 2 months since my last entry! Ah! Lots has been going on since then. A.Lot. To put it mildly, things have been very stressful and I feel like I probably have aged about 20 years in the past few months. Here, we'll focus on the positive and I'll ask for prayers for the "stressful." Believe me, if you send prayers for my fam, the Big Man upstairs will know what you're talking about, even though you won't!

So let's see...since November, Kristi got married!! She had a wonderful wedding! I knew it would be a great wedding though: a fantastic couple = a fantastic wedding!! It was great to share in their special day celebrating their love! They've been together for 10 years now, so it was a long time coming! And they know how to throw a hell of a party!!! Also that weekend we got to spend a night with Kim, Ken, and Zach which was great too. We wish it had been longer, but we were happy to have even a short time with them!

And then fall came and went...

And then I went to ASHA for the first time ever! It was great getting to see my Canadian friend, Insull :) And I got to spend time with Gigi too! (However, besides the social aspect, ASHA was pretty much a huge let-down!)

And Thanksgiving (in Maine) came and went (too quickly). It was so great being home for a week, but it wasn't nearly enough time. I miss being home so much already and can't wait to get back there later this week.

And the Christmas season came....and Christmas is almost here!

We are headed home on Thursday night and will be back on Sunday. So basically we only get Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home. Not nearly enough time :( However, on the bright side, Shawn will be home which will be the first time in about 6 years that we'll all be there for Christmas, so I'm very very VERY excited about that!

I hope everyone out there has a happy and safe Christmas. Enjoy your families!

If you want to be happy in a million ways,

For the Holidays you can't beat home sweet home

Random Updates on Yerxa Happenings!

This past week seemed to be long, busy, and basically just got away from me! I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my BFF Kell a very happy birthday (on the 21st) and my bro a very happy birthday as well! (on the 22nd) Hope you all had wonderful days and that you got to spend it doing anything you wanted! Although, since your bdays were on Thursday and Friday respectively, I doubt you did ;) hehe so I hope you both had a great weekend!

This weekend we went CAMPING!!!! Yes, camping on October 23rd :) Luckily we did not go on Friday night as we experienced the first frost of the year and it got into the 30s!! Saturday was in the low 70's, and dipped into the 50s at night, but was definitely comfortable.

We went with friends and went for a moonlight kayak tour in Pohick Bay!! And since the full moon was on Friday, it was alllllllmost full so it was pretty easy to see out there on the water. It was a guided tour with about 15 people. It went along at a leisurely pace, stopping every now and then to point out different things (certain trees and plant life, beavers and their dams, osprey and bald eagle nests, great blue herons, and an actual osprey. Unfortunately the bald eagle wasn't in the tree that night, boo!) It was so much fun! It was about 2 hr 15-30 mins on the water and we went about 6 miles. The water was so calm, not even a ripple. At times it made it hard to get your bearings! I had to keep looking over towards shore to make sure I was moving some of the time! The moon in the sky looked exactly the same as the moon in the reflection in the water since there were no waves or ripples or anything up against my kayak. Very strange! It was so clear out too that when we were paddling towards the moon, it was almost like going into the sun; it was a little bit blinding! I really wish I had some pics of it (they probably wouldn't have even come out though) btu I'm glad I didn't bring my camera since I did get pretty wet out there! Luckily I wore lots of layers so I wasn't cold at all.

Then we made a fire, ate s'mores, and did the standard camping things :) It was great to get out again since we only went one other time this summer! And it was great that it was nice and cool and we got to bundle up to sleep! I even slept in until 8:30!!! Amazing! I slept soooo good. I love camping sleep!

Today has been spent cleaning up from camping (washing all of our smoke-infested clothes, giving all our dishes/pots/pans a thorough scrubbing so they're ready to be put away for the year, etc.) and I took a trip to the mall with Erin. I got a couple of pants at LOFT for 50% off which I'm pretty pumped about! Even more exciting than the sale (if that's even possible) is that their petite size fits me so well! Usually I'm about 1" too tall for petite length, but 3" too short for regular sizes, which can be sooo frustrating!! (Although Insull changed my life by introducing me to Heat 'N Bond - you iron this glue/tape stuff in to hem pants, which is great since I can't sew! I actually tried it for the first time on Friday...I think it went well, but I haven't worn the pants yet so we'll see. :) The true test will be how it holds up to washing I think.

So now here I am, doing anything to avoid the realization of tomorrow being MONDAY. But I"m very excited for Friday: it's Momma's birthday (YAY!) and we're going on a Haunted Tour in Old Town Alexandria (we're doing the Special Halloween Tour, if you click the link and are interested) that takes us through some haunted buildings as well as some graveyards!! Spooky! :) We've never been on a tour like this so we're pretty excited! Hopefully we'll see a ghost or 2! Even if we don't, I'm sure it will be a fun experience with friends!

Here's some pics from the weekend:

Our campsite

Pohick Bay - where we went kayaking. This place we huge; it goes much farther in both directions

the canoes and kayaks for later!

the beach where we take off from for the tour

finally - looks like fall!

So as usual, I hate to say goodbye to the weekend. It was a great one! Halloween fun next weekend then off to NY for Kristi's wedding, which brings us to November!!! Soooo, where is 2010 going?!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE MOST WONDERFUL PEOPLE I KNOW!

My parents!! They are celebrating 37 years of marriage today and I am so proud of them!! They are 2 incredible people with an indescribable love for one another and I can't imagine better marriage models :) I love you both so, so much!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I also have a great cute kid story from today!

So, I was at a school working with a 2nd grader on articulation. S to be exact. He makes it kind of "slushy" so it sounds more like "sh."

We were playing an S memory game and we were working on discrimination between a good snake sound and a not so good snake sound so some of the time I was producing the words incorrectly and having him correct me. So for example, I might say, "I got sunflower and shun" (sun) and he's say, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sun!!!!! (really emphasizing the S.)

At one point, I chose 2 cards and (not so surprisingly) did not get a match. So I said, "Awww shucks!" to which he responded, "Aww Sucks!!"

Oops :)

But it was a great S, kid.

One Helluva Weekend!

WOW! What a busy and exciting weekend we had!! Margy came in on Thursday evening. Once I picked her and Cristobal up from Pentagon City we just grabbed some dinner (Chipotle, naturally) and relaxed. On Friday we went into DC (Chris went into work for a few hours even though he had the day off, boooo) so Margy and I went to the American History Museum. (Sidenote: this museum was closed for a couple of years while they did renovations. It repoened in the Spring of 09 and was really not good. Renovations weren't completely done so lots of displays were still missing from the museum. Well there is so much in there now, it's really in much MUCH better shape! Just an FYI!)

Nastia Liukin's leo from 2008 Olympics

Fonzie's jacket

Archie Bunker's chair (this one's for you Dad!)

Dorothy's slippers

After the museum we met up with Chris and took a stroll thru the sculpture garden

Then we even hit up the Archives and checked out the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and Declaration of Independence

THEN we went over to the Tidal Basin to say hello to Jefferson and FDR. This little guy was flying overhead.

On Saturday, I ran a half marathon! Yup, 13.1 miles and I didn't stop or walk the whoooole way! When I originally signed up my goal time was anything under 3:00:00 and I thought I'd do it in the high 2's. Then the night before the race I set my watch goal time for 2:17:00 and I did it in 2:15:52...SUCCESS!!! It was an amazing day! Chris and Margy were there cheering me on and I appreciate the support of everyone, near & far! It all meant the world to me!

Heading to M&T Bank Stadium for the Expo so I could pick up my bib, etc

Before everyone lined up

Pre-race..getting nevous! but very excited!

So glad he was here keeping me calm :)

Getting ready to go!

Byeee! Off to line up!

My wave heading up to the start. See me in the middle?

Look at all the half marathon'ers ready to go! A great group of people!

Couldn't believe we spotted each other at the end! (Yes, I saw them too!) Only about .2 to go...just keeep runninggggggg!!!

I DID IT!!! 13.1 miles gets you a space blanket ;)

Victory tastes goooooood!

So you might be wondering how I'm feeling today? Well I am getting more and more sore as the day goes on but nothing I can't handle (although it is something I"ll complain about!) I'm definitely moving pretty slow and it's very reminiscent of the good ol' gymnastics days!

Yesterday I felt like...OK, I'm very, very glad I did the 1/2 but didn't feel an overwhelming desire to do another one, or to run anytime soon! However right now as I'm writing this entry I'm also looking up my next race! I definitely have plans for the Jingle All the Way 10k on Dec 12. They give you bells to attach to your shoes so that you DO jingle all the way! How cool! Also contemplating a November one. It'd be great if we could find one in Maine when we're there in November but I'm not sure if that's going to happen!

I also just found out that registration for the '11 Baltimore Running Festival opens in December...they have the 12 Days of Christmas promotion so I'm assuming it's cheaper if you register then and I'm seriously considering it! Could my next 1/2 be 363 days away?

My Best Friend's Wedding

MY BEST FRIEND OF 20 YEARS IS ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!! I can't even put into words how excited I am right now! That was the most exciting phone call I've EVER received. Kelley and Pete, I love you guys so much and I'm so happy that you found each other! I know that you'll have a beautiful life together.

I stole this pic from Kelley's album of their special day!!

So glad they got pictures of it!!!

OH YEAH, did I mention she was my Maid of Honor in Chris & my wedding....and now I'll get to be her Matron of Honor!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :) :) :)

I am so excited!! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!! :) It's going to be tough though - Kelley was the best Maid of Honor...she was amazing! I hope I can be just as good!!

CONGRATULATIONS KELLEY & PETE!

Just Call Me Johnny Appleseed

Cause we picked a ton of apples today :) We got a bunch of Fuji and Golden Delicious for eating and a bunch of Nittany apples for baking! Big plans for an apple pie tonight :)

We went with Erin and Jimmy to a place that Chris and I went 2 years ago (the day we picked up Fenway & Clare - Oct 19!) This time around was much better! It's a few weeks earlier in the season so there were LOTS of great apples to choose from. We knew what we wanted and ended up where there weren't so many people which was great. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for picking apples (it's raining now, but who cares - we aren't outside anymore!) Other than Chris having to fight the parking attendant for the long stick to help get the higher up apples, our apple search went smoothly :)

First apple of the day!

Chris using the stick

we were trying to do the farmer picture...only we had apples...

and an apple stick instead of a pitchfork..

and we couldn't even really remember what that picture looked like, except that no one smiled in it! lol

Despite Chris' face, these Fuji's were YUMMY!!!!

Chris & Jimmy

My turn to use the stick!

Jimmy's turn!

Erin's turn!

Oh yeah - when we got home I ran 10 miles outside! Yeah!!!

Happy Fall....FINALLY!