The Crafts

Yesterday's shenanigans generated a lot of pics. Below are just a few... Kate's new favorite game for the past week is pillowcase races. She really wants CJ to participate but as you can imagine, that hasn't gone well. So the race is always between Kate and me.  She is very competitive and isn't the happiest if she doesn't win. Here she is in the middle of a pillowcase race against herself.  :) Yesterday's lunch was very exciting.  I found an incredibly long mac 'n cheese noodle.  Kate was beyond thrilled. She didn't know whether to eat it or frame it.  Seriously. And we wrapped up lunch with a little Oreo treat.  And as usual, CJ turned herself into a pint sized Oreo.

Although this is not the 'super cute' sewing project I referenced the other day, it is still a cute one. And it was a high priority project for Kate. We found some cheap Disney princess fabric at Wal-Mart and Kate insisted on making it into a dress. Yah, like I know how to do that.  So instead we made a very basic pillow case. I promise, I do style her hair but for some reason she never has it brushed in pictures.  She's still cute though. CJ liked the pillow, too.  Or she was just trying to pick on Kate.  That is pretty common around here.

I have this chair.  It isn't very cute.  The shape is nice and it has some old style character but I really dislike the seat. I've been using it as my sewing room chair but soon discovered it is not at all comfortable to sit on. So while Matt and Kate were golfing yesterday, CJ and I started out on a new project. See my little helper in the background?  :) CJ 'helped' me remove the old chair pad. It is VERY sunny in the sewing room.  CJ loves it. I thought about painting the chair but decided I kinda like the old worn wood. We ripped off the old fabric and added some new. I actually bought this fabric for another project but I have tons leftover so I thought this might be a good place for it. Now I'm going to go have a seat here and hopefully get my other project done!! It is going to be super cute.

It was a GREAT week of running for me.  I really feel fabulous.  Despite the high heat and humidity I had some very good runs this week. Tuesday: 5.33 miles, I don't have a time because I forgot to charge the Garmin (GPS watch) Thursday: 5 miles in 43:49 in early evening w/ VERY high humidity   Mile 1: 8:50 (warm-up mile)   Mile 2: 8:30 (pace mile)   Mile 3: 8:41 (pace mile but humidity eating me alive)   Mile 4: 8:47 (pace mile, I was virtually melting)   Mile 5: 9:00 (cool down) Friday: 4 miles in 35:34, easy day at a 8:54/mile average, oh yah, the humidity was terrible this evening, too Sunday: 9 miles in 1:20:40 at 8:58/mile average So why was this week so great for me?  My average pace, even on my easy days, was much faster than normal.  At first I thought this was due to me completing two of my runs in the evening instead of the morning (thanks thunderstorms) but my Sunday morning run came easier than normal.  I'm excited about my pace and I hope to continue

The Craft household made some new food discoveries this week. First up....Nutella.  I've had it before but apparently Matt and Kate have not.  They are in love.  If you haven't had Nutella before, it is a chocolately, hazlenut spread found in the peanut butter aisle.  Yum. Secondly, have you read the book 'The Secret Life of Bees?'  In this book the characters regularly eat Candlestick Salad.  I surprised Kate with it the other day.  She thought it was pretty cool. When I first brought it out the banana was without a cherry.  Kate said, "but the candle isn't lit." Aha!  I pulled out the cherry on a toothpick and 'lit' the candle.  She dug it. (Can you see the Nutella beard on her chin in the second pic!) CJ needed a treat too...so here is another Oreo pic.  Notice she never gets Oreo anywhere else besides her face and hands.  She isn't about to waste one teeny, tiny bit of Oreo. And on this lovely Saturday morning we had a Craft dance party.

Last week the girls and I had a chance to visit with a friend from far, far, far away. Laura and I were very good buddies in high school.  We met in...middle school, I guess...through a summer rec swim program.  And we continued to swim together through high school. Laura and I loved swimming, music and hanging out together. I love Laura. She is really fun and always makes me laugh. We have some very good memories together. Laura now lives far away in England.  She fell in love and married an English man. I usually only see Laura once a year at most but since last September she has been back three times. And that means I have had three chances to see her!  I was so happy! Who would have thought many, many, many years after meeting her in middle school we'd both be mommies. Whew, are we responsible enough for that Laura?  I sure hope so. In the middle is Laura's little sweetie, Daniel.  He is a cutie and I think CJ was kinda into him.  :)

My friend, Heather,  posted some good questions for me on a couple of my blog posts.  Thanks, Heather!  So I thought I'd answer them.  I don't know if anyone else cares one lick about my answers but I'm going to post them anyway. Good job on all the running! Do you feel better compared to a month ago? Glad your doing it? Worth your time? Running makes me feel great!  I ran a wee bit in college but didn't really pick it up until after I finished my swimming career.  Once UNI swimming wrapped up I went through a phase where I didn't lift a finger or move a muscle.  It was as if my body gave off a tremendous sigh and never wanted to move again.  But then I began to feel rather blobbish (is that word?)  I had spent 10 or so years of my life working out strenuously.  Some days swim practice would be FOUR HOURS long.  So after my hiatus from swimming my body began to crave exercise.  I tried going to the UNI rec center but the rowing machine didn't cut it.  I neede

Another princess tragedy in our house. Do you think the Beast will still love Belle without a head? I guess these two at least have each other. And this girl has finally climbed a tree.  She couldn't have been more proud. Oh, and when I say climbed you should interpret that as...I hoisted her above my head into a tree and Kate clung for dear life while I tried to snap a photo. But she is still so proud.  :) Today's run: 5.33 miles

I bought myself some new toys this weekend. My previous cell phone was getting a little sad looking...and wasn't operating like it used to.  Instead of going 'beep' when I had a missed call the phone would cry 'BeEeEeEePpppP.'  The problem developed partially because of the girls getting their hands on my phone and also because I have dropped my phone a few times.  Especially when I took it running with me.  My phone was my only mp3 player.  I know!  Don't make fun.  We are technology deprived around here, really, truly.  So I went out and also bought myself an iPod shuffle.  Aren't they cute and fancy? And look how teeny tiny the iPod shuffle is!  A wee bit bigger than a quarter.  And it holds hours and hours and hours of songs.  I'm really looking forward to my run tomorrow morning!

Despite not posting about running this week I want to assure you that I have, in fact, been out there jogging.  This week's total was 21 miles, which is significantly less than last week BUT...I ran a couple of extra days last week before I started my training program.  So I logged more last week than I was supposed to.  Anyway... Here is my running week in review: Tuesday: 5 easy miles in 46:12, 9:14/mile average Thursday: roughly 4 miles - included various warm-ups and cool downs with 2 x 1 mile sprints at 7:50/mile Friday: 4 easy miles in 37:39, 9:14/mile average Saturday: 8 miles in 1:11:47, 8:58/mile average I'm pretty happy with today's 8 miler since it was about 20 degrees warmer than last Saturday's 8 miler AND I was about a minute and a half faster overall.  Next week gets a bit more difficult...fewer rest days and more miles.  But I'm feeling great and can't wait to try out next week's challenges!

We laughed. And laughed. And laughed. We are still laughing. I can't stop laughing. at Kate's Vacation Bible School Picture...

Kate has been playing a little rough with her princesses lately. Several princesses have had the hair ripped out of their head. But she is lucky; we were able to reattach the proper hair to the proper head. Sadly, that is not the case for Prince Charming and his legs. Oh, and today's run: 5 miles.

We hit the road on Sunday to celebrate my brother's and my dad's birthdays. The only way to get through a road trip with CJ is to feed her...constantly. Here you can see CJ's hand reaching to Kate for more goldfish crackers. Kate was getting restless, too.  But wait, did I tell you it was only a one hour drive. Yep, one hour and we have to pull out all of the tricks just to stay sane. I handed Kate the camera and told her to take pics of things. She was beyond excited.  I almost never let her use my camera...but I had to do something. So here is Kate's pic of CJ.  Believe me, she was not this happy 98% of the drive. Kate thought the trees were pretty.  Or she just wanted to keep taking pictures. She took A LOT more pictures but they weren't really blog worthy...or even viewing worthy. But she had fun. Today has been kind of a weird sleeping day. Matt and I woke up and found Kate sleeping in the hallway.  No pillow, no blanket...just laying on the carpet.  Matt

The new City Park opened up this week!  Guess who is SOOOOO excited! Here is a review of our trips to the park. 10 - the number of times an hour Kate asks to go to the park 9 - the number times she went down the twirly slide  8 - the number of times I pushed CJ in the swing 7 - the number of times we shook wood chips out of our sandals 6 - total number of trips to the new park 5 - the number of times the girls cried at the new park 4 - the number of 'friends' Kate made while playing 3 - the number of hours spent at the new park 2 - the number of days the park has been open 1 - the number of bloody, fat lips suffered from playing at the park It was also a great week of running for me. I ran 27.5 miles this week at a much faster per mile pace than I had planned for. This morning's run was 8 miles and I was to run a 9:30 / mile pace but ran very comfortable 9 minutes miles and returned home feeling energized and refreshed. Now I have two days off!! I also made myself a new

OK.  You have to read   this . Yes, I am goofy.  I doubted whether or not it was really going to be worth it but... I laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Matt looked at me like I was nuts. But it is funny. Click here.   And you won't be sorry.

Kate was using one of my glass jars as a drum. Fun idea until she rolled it down the stairs. Thank goodness it didn't break! Grandma and Grandpa Smith showed up on Saturday with a marshmallow gun. We were all shot with mini marshmallows for hours. Don't worry, that isn't a scratch on CJ's cheek. Rather she got the mark from crawling around with my cell phone in her mouth. Despite the drool, my phone still works. And a quick run update. Wednesday's run: 4 miles Thursday's run: 5.25 miles I'm following a half marathon training program so I have all my runs scheduled out. I've started trying to run in the mornings again.  Before kids I used to set my alarm for 5:15 a.m. every morning.  I'd pop out of bed and run some fabulous times. Now days I struggle to convince myself to get out of bed and then I run slow. I think my body isn't used to transitioning from sleep to run in 15 minutes. But it better get used to it because the half marathon begi

Someone is in trouble... And it's not her.  It's the rest of us!

There is one thing that... makes me a better wife, makes me a better mama, leaves me confident and smiley, helps my clothes fit better, and allows me to enjoy dessert... RUNNING And I plan to do a lot more running from here on out. Today's run: 4.25 miles