Hometown Love

Check out the Grand Rapids lip dub. Pretty fun, if you ask me!

Summer is Right Around the Corner!!

Technically, I have to work until June 22 but it feels like summer & freedom is right around the corner. No summer school for this girl. Woot.

I'll be taking a class this summer, but it is online so it won't be too inconvenient. Besides that, I have a list of projects that I want to work on around the house.

House To Dos:

• Organize "Treadmill" Room- (bookshelves, closet)

• Gather pictures and hang frames on upstairs landing- Something similar to this, but smaller scale

• Style bookshelves on either side of fireplace

• Reorganize laundry room

• Organize old pictures into photograph boxes

• Put up two floating shelves in master bath

• Hang pictures in basement bath

• Hang pictures in master bath

• Hang pictures in guest room & organize guest closet

• Organize closets in master bedroom

• Organize space behind wet bar in basement

• Install cabinets in basement for tv area (I will not be tackling this one)

• Paint main floor? (Gil is not convinced on this one haha)

• Paint or find fabric to accent cutouts:

Lots to do...can't wait to tackle our house!

On another note, Laila is passed out and snoring at my feet. She had a play date with her boyfriend, Wrigley, yesterday. She was pretty happy about that. Of course they stopped playing when I whipped out the iPhone.

Last summer when they played, she was so little! And I forgot to mention at the beginning of May, Laila turned one! This has been great in our household because she hasn't been chewing as much so we've been able to leave her out of her crate for short periods of time when we leave the house. I think she likes her newfound freedom. Hopefully it won't be too long until we can always leave her out. She still has slip-ups every now and then, like this:

Dang it, Laila!

...Now I'm off to go enjoy this sunny, 80 degree day. Three cheers for long weekends!

Brush with Fame...Well, Not Really at All

Gil and I were driving home from an unsuccessful attempt at seeing a movie on Saturday night (which merely involved us getting soaked on the way to the theater, only to find out that the movie was sold out), when we noticed some bright lights and a crowd gathered on the street.

The day before we had noticed that some movie or tv show was being shot in town because police were blocking off the streets and we could see the crew. We were trying to cross the street to go ask a cop what they were filming, but we couldn't figure out if it was okay to cross or not and I was a bit terrified that we were somehow going to ruin their shot. I'm pretty sure they corralled the area enough so that random pedestrians wouldn't ruin anything- but either way, we awkwardly stood around watching as they filmed the scene way down the street before we decided to head to dinner.

We had a hunch about what show it was but we got another look on Saturday as we drove by. It was definitely the show Hung which airs on HBO. I'm pretty sure we were looking at Thomas Jane in his yellow rain slicker. Terrible picture, I know but it was the best I could do before the light turned green...kinda fun to see a show being taped!

A Note About the Rain...

Why, rain? Why must you continue to fall???

Normally, I like a good rain or thunderstorm. But day after day, it gets a bit old. Indoor recess = THE WORST THING EVER. Also, I'm sick of drying Laila off every time she comes inside.

Our lilac bushes were looking & smelling amazing around the house...but the heavy rains took care of that and now most of the blooms are on the ground. It was premature. Boo.

It was nice while it lasted.

On another note, I found these at Meijer and think they are super cute. I kind of want to get a few for the basement. The tops come off so we would get a bit extra storage for blankets and things. Black or green, black or green?

And finally, happy Memorial weekend to you! This long weekend is highly needed around here!

Sunday Update

* This warm weather is making me a nicer person

* I love Pinterest

* I have not written my paper yet

* Our house is clean <3

* I forgot how nice our backyard is

* It's almost summer vacation

The End.

Riverbank Run 2011

When I woke up bright & early to run the 10k, I'll be honest, I was not excited. I felt like I had slept off and on for a total of about 2 hours the night before because Laila was being a pain in the butt. I also woke up to the sounds of a downpour outside. Yuck. I don't know about you, but I have zero desire to run in the rain. As Gil mentioned, he wasn't extremely thrilled to stand outside in the rain for an hour waiting for me to run by for 2 seconds either. Haha. What a trooper. :) The year that I ran the 25k, there was amazing weather...but we didn't get that lucky this year!

Of course I had left my raincoat at home, but luckily Gil's sister had one I could borrow. By the time we had gotten down to the course, the downpour had slowed to a mist and it wasn't too bad. Sometime around the last mile, the rain started coming down a bit more but by then I was running up a hill and couldn't think of anything else besides "don't walk now, don't walk now"!

I'm happy to say that I sprinted the last leg of the race once the finish line was in sight. I love finishing fast!

Here's that soaked, freezing picture of me from the race:

Riverbank run...Woot!

Reached a Goal!

Today I fulfilled one of my New Year's resolutions...I ran the 10k Riverbank run. I had two goals related to the Riverbank run. The first was to complete the run without walking. Check. The second goal was to finish in an hour or under. I came in at 1 hour and 43 seconds. Really???

It's my own fault I suppose, because I texted Gil once during the race, took my rain coat off and had to fuss with tying it around my waste whilst avoiding my headphones cord, and took a (very blurry) picture of everyone ahead of me on the race course with my phone. Seemed like a fun picture idea at the time, but I'm sure it slowed me down and cost me the 43 seconds.

Oh well! Feels good to have completed a goal. Gil took a picture of me on his iPhone at the race which I'll have to post later.

P.S. My sister also ran the 10k today...Go sis!! My best friend ran the 25k (amazing)!!

End of the Year Craziness

Lately I have felt like my head is spinning with all the things I need to get done! I just started a new course, Teacher as Researcher, and for some reason I am having a hard time getting into the swing of things. Homework is just the last thing I feel like doing lately! I blame the (fabulous) change in weather.

The end of the year is always crazy at school and there are a million things to do before June 15. I had a dream last night that it was the last day of school and the kids were all crying and I was super sad. I'm going to miss these little munchkins! I really did have a good group of kids this year.

Aside from school things and homework, I have also been trying to cram in some last minute "training" for the Riverbank Run. But who am I kidding? I really didn't train very consistently for this run. I really just fit in runs when I could. I'm hoping to run the 10k in 1 hour or less. It's coming up on the 14th...wish me luck!!