My 29th BDay

I decided for my birthday to head down to Chicago to celebrate and to visit with some good old friends of mine. Lots of eating and drinking and hanging out. We had a lot of fun and appreciate the hospitality from the Lesners and Innerfields while we were there for the weekend.

Lily and Jax in the makeshift dog park

No ball to play with but a stick will do

Out to dinner

Thanks ladies for a great time!

Boys being boys

Jaeger Bombs

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon

So last year was the first year I had started running. I had accomplished many goals for the first year of running. The one thing I didn't do was a marathon so I set that to be my big goal this year. I was determined to train well for it. That didn't happen.

You might hate me, think I'm stupid or be in awe after reading this. My training only included the half marathon I had run a month ago, and a couple of 8 mile runs before the marathon. I know it's not an excuse but I was extremely busy working 40 hours/week on my feet and having three classes. But I did have one thing on my side. My strength and will to complete a task.

I had my cheering crew with me. Joshua, Lily, Linda and Andrew. They were such a big help. I think I saw them on the route two or three times. Every time I saw them cheering me on, it gave me an energy boost. Just when I thought I couldn't go any further, I would see them.

I really had wished I had trained more for this. When the race started, I felt good. One mile into it, I thought that this wasn't going to be so bad. Three miles in, still feeling good. I was in my stride by then. Five miles goes by then eight. My pace was steady through eight miles, which made me happy.

Then I got to the half marathon mark. It all suddenly sank in. I've never ran more than 13 miles straight through in my life. Now that I ran 13 miles, I still had 13 more to go. I felt my energy going down. However, each step I took was now the furtherest I had ever run before.

By mile 16, I was hurting...a lot. My calves were on fire, my toes were blistering and my arms were so tired. For some reason, my breathing was fine. That I can control.

Every time I stopped to walk, it hurt. Every time I started back up to run, it hurt. All this walk/run/walk/run was more painfully than just running. So when I hit mile 20, I decided no more walk and to just run through the pain.

I was running or more like jogging kinda. I think people walking could've been faster than me. But I wasn't going to stop. I even skipped the last two water stations knowing I wouldn't make it if I stopped.

I did inspire a guy though. I must've ran past him at some point and he must've seen me skip the water station and not stop to walk. At this point of the race, it was the stragglers left and most were running then walking and so on. The guy all of a sudden caught up to me. We started talking and he had told me that I was his inspiration to keep running.

That felt incredibly great and helped me continue running and not stop. We talked for a bit running side by side, each of us motivating the other. When we came upon the last water stop, he stopped for a drink and that's where we said our goodbyes since I had told him and myself that I couldn't stop running.

Soon, I could see the end was near. That made me push even harder and not stop. I was so close to finishing. Then I saw my cheering crew. What a sweet sight. I crossed the finish line and couldn't believe it. I finished a marathon. Not well, but I finished.

I grabbed some food and drinks in the finishers area and headed to my cheering section. Lily rushed towards me and I fell down. She was only 3 months at this point and almost 30 pounds and I was exhausted! We stayed for a little bit to drink some beers. Well, I deserved it! Then I continued to pass out for the next few days.

I'm hoping the next time I run a marathon, I will be more prepared. Yes, there will be another marathon. Not right away but someday.

Madison Mini Marathon

Year 2 of this half marathon for me. However, I wasn't feeling that great about it since I had been so busy with a new house and new puppy. I didn't get to run as much and never quite ran the miles I wanted to for this race.

I was lucky to have two supporters there with me this year. Joshua and our new puppy addition, Lily. We had only had her for 5 days and I thought this event would be a perfect way to get her used to big crowds and she was the center of attention.

We got to the event with plenty of time to warm up so Lily and I jogged down State Street for a bit, her first ever running on a leash with me. The sky was looking grim as I lined up with my group at the starting line. Then they announced a rain delay. Great! I was separated from Joshua too. At least I remembered him saying they were going to take a walk along the lake so I headed that way and luckily was about to connect with them.

Good thing too since the storm delay lasted an hour and a half. We ended up sitting underneath an eave to get shielded from the rain. It was a crazy storm too! Thunder and lightening and tons of rain. Luckily, they did not cancel the race. Joshua and I were a bit scared wondering how Lily would deal with the storm but nothing! Didn't even phase her with all the loud noises above us.

They finally called us back to the starting line as it was still lightly raining. By the time we started, it became a steady rain which I didn't mind so much running in it. 3 miles of running in the pouring rain and even though I was glad it stopped, later I wished it was still raining cause I was so hot!

Even though it poured throughout the morning, it eventually stopped and never came back. The last 10 miles were running in the sun. Really, I wished the rain had come back.

I may not have trained very well for this race but I felt extremely good and never walked (always a plus!). 13.1 miles later, I crossed the finish line at 2 hour 5 minutes and 55 seconds, 8 minutes faster than last year! I think the inspiration was Joshua and Lily. I just could not wait to see them, especially since we had just gotten Lily, I didn't want to be away from her long. I was sad I didn't get to see them at the finish line...apparently they got stuck in traffic coming back to the union but I did see them at some point in the race cheering me on.

It took awhile to reconnect but when we did, Lily was so excited to see me. And that was when I got to hear some of Joshua's stories. I guess with Joshua toting a cute chocolate lab puppy around town, he got stopped a lot for all the people wanting to pet her. Especially the ladies. If he was single, he wouldn't have been by the end of the day. Even the guys were giving Joshua props for attracting all the ladies. Joshua says to this day that all he wanted to do was see me race and not have all these people come up to him.

So after hanging out at the Terrace for a bit and enjoying my beer, we headed back to the car. Since we were out on the streets a lot during the storm, Lily became a police officer's new best friend. We passed by this officer on the way to our car and Lily recognized her. I wonder if she would again if we ever saw this officer.

The cutest thing about this day was when Lily passed out in the car ride home. All I wanted to do was cuddle with her and do the same thing. My goal next year is to run under 2 hours, if I train enough.

Lily taking a jog with me before
the race down State Street

Saying goodbye and getting a good luck kiss from her

All set to go!

Rain delay so we had to find an overhang to hide under.
Lily's first storm with thunder and lightening, and no fears!

Second time around to see me off

Getting a medal for finishing another half +
Getting greeted by my puppy = Happy day

Another half in the books

Our cute little family pic, except Lily
was more interested in my medal

Passed out on the ride home which is
what I did when I got home myself

Our First Puppy!

Ever since we talked about getting a house, we also talked about getting a puppy. I didn't want to get one until Joshua slowed down at work since I was busy with work and was about to go back to school for the fall. At first, we wanted to get a Huskie but then we decided on a Chocolate Lab.

One day when I got done bartending, Joshua made me go see some pups. Still too early but what's the harm in looking? Famous last words.

We went to Evansville, about 15 minutes away to see some Choc Lab puppies. D'awwwwww!!! They were too cute. There were three left, 2 male and 1 female. We knew we wanted a female but I still wasn't sure if now was a good time to get a puppy to train.

There was one pup that had a bum leg. We found out that he was born with some sort of bacteria in his front leg and the vet had to operate on his leg to fix it. He wasn't suppose to survive but he did which is why the breeders named that only puppy Lucky, the rest had no names. Although, he'll forever have a gimip.

I really wanted to take that puppy home but since it was going to be our first dog and I wanted a dog to run with, I had to force myself to let that puppy go. (It did eventually go to a friend of the breeder's and he is living a healthy normal life with a gimpy leg.)

We kept an eye on the female pup and boy, well, girl, she knew how to work her magic. She walked up to me and I bent down to pet her and she gave me a ton of kisses. Then next thing I knew, she laid down by my feet and put her head on my feet. Crap, I think we're about to own a dog. And yes, we had to take her home right then and there.

Best decision ever! She was so playful and kind and happy (although her sharp baby teeth were not so gentle to us). I think that if she had been trained early, she could've made a great guide dog for someone but I'm really glad she's with us.

Oh, her name? Lily. How did we come up with that? Well, Joshua says he came up with it because our flowers for the wedding were lilies. I, on the other hand, had just recently started watching Modern Family. First episode, at the end of the show, two gay guys adopt an Asian baby girl and named her Lily. Another member of the family said, "Lily. Isn't that going to be hard for her to say?". So even though we disagree on who came up with the name, at least we agreed on a name.

Lily, our new chocolate lab :)

These pics are when she was 7 to 9 weeks old. She grew up so fast!

Exploring her new home

Cuddling up to her new owner

Nap time!

She wasn't quite sure about the ball...
Now I have to put it away from time to
time cause she plays with it so much!

She's not too happy cause it's too big for her

Her first and not the last toy she destroys

I love the way she sleeps

Kisses to Joshua

This was the moment I knew she'd be a runner with me

She loves Aunt Linda

New House!!!

It's that time our of lives and we were ready to take the next step. We had to take advantage of the low interest rates, the lowest in years and our rental lease was almost up for renewal. So we made the decision to buy a house this year.

We could have waited another year as the interest rates lowered even more but I'm glad we had made the decision to buy this year. We couldn't afford much but we knew what we wanted. 3 bed, 2 bath, basement, preferably an attached garage and most importantly, a nice big open kitchen.

We knew since Joshua had recently gotten the head chef job at Coachman's near Stoughton/Edgerton that we would want to be near there, considering he works 60 hours/week and needs to be there quickly in case of an emergency. So, our realtor took us to see some houses in Stoughton, Deerfield and Edgerton.

All the houses we saw in the beginning were cute but either too small or the 3rd bedroom was away from the other bedrooms. We knew that if we wanted to start a family or even resell the house in the future that it would be nice to have all three bedrooms on the same level in the same area.

Finally, we saw an extremely cute older house in Edgerton. Wood floors from top to bottom, a finished basement, an open but slightly small kitchen, 3 bed, 2 bath, detached garage with a bonus workout room. We really liked it. However, the process with the bank was very slow so at that point we were only pre-approved and not officially approved of a loan so we lost that house to someone else that put on offer on it. Since we couldn't, we had to let it go. We weren't extremely sad since it was a detached garage, a small kitchen and the 3rd bedroom was away from the rest so even though we wanted it, we weren't sad that we lost it.

Couple weeks went by as we continued to look and get officially approved of our loan. Then we found another house in Edgerton. Corner lot, huge yard, attached garage with a basketball hoop already installed (hey, we're sports people and hopefully our kids will be too), large living room with wood floors, big open kitchen with up to date appliances in the kitchen, tiled kitchen and dining room, 3 bedrooms on the same floor although with very ugly carpet, 2 1/2 baths and an unfinished basement.

The thing that really turned us off about the place was that the 1/2 bath/laundry room on the main level was next to the garage. So when you walked in from the garage, you walked into the bathroom then into the dining room area. Not exactly appealing. But we kept that house at the top of the list and continued looking.

Our realtor must have relayed that to the seller's realtor because we soon got a phone call from our realtor saying that the owners were willing to work with us to make it a private bathroom. We instantly through up a bid.

Offers, counter-offers, more counter-offers, inspection, and finally it all went through. All we could do now was wait for the loan to come through for us. And what a headache that was. I'll spare the details but let's just say we got the okay from the bank at 4:30pm when we had to close the next morning at 9:00 away. Talk about last minute!

Closing was the best relief. Even though from the moment the offer was finally accepted, everyone said we had a house but deep down in my heart, I knew it wasn't ours until we closed.

Since we closed at the end of June and our lease wasn't up until July 31, we took our time moving in. The first thing we did was repaint every room. Then we tore up the carpet from the stairs to all the bedrooms on the 2nd floor and put in bamboo flooring to match the living room floor. Finally, we slowly moved everything in.

It's so great to say we finally have our first home. We may move, we may stay but whatever happens, this will always be our first home.