Happy Birthday...

AMY!!!

Today, May 28th Amy (Andy's mother) is having a birthday. It is so much fun to get to celebrate with her. Tonight I think that we are going to try to go and have a picnic at the trial gardens down at UT. We will see if the weather permits. Amy does so much for all of us so it is nice to have a day to get to celebrate her. She loves us (all her kids, her husband, parents, extended family and friends) so well and we are so lucky to have her in our life.
Amy, I hope you know how much you mean to us. We are so proud of you for all of the accomplishments that you have made, including your loving and kind family. We appreciate all of your love and support, I know we don't tell you that enough. Your kind heart is felt by so many people and I hope that today you can feel that love surrounding you. We love you more than you know. Thank you for being you.

I asked Amy a few birthday questions so those of you who do not have the pleasure of knowing Amy as well as I do can have a little better idea of who Amy is. She is too cute!!! Here we go!
Where were you born? Ft. Sanders Hospital, the same hospital where 3 of our 4 children were born.. Andy is a Memphis baby - that explains his rhythm and love of the blues!!

What was your favorite birthday and why?
All of my birthdays are special because I get to be with family & friends, but my 40th was extra special because my girlfriends met at my Mom's house and did head stands, cartwheels, etc. Gigi and Meme threw a great party!!

If you could be anywhere on your birthday where would you be?
At the Trial Gardens (Univ. of Tenn.) having a picnic with my family or St. John

What is your favorite birthday cake?
Hard one to answer, as I love so many kinds of cake, but probably chocolate with white icing.

What is your favorite color?
Yellow

What is one thing that you can’t help but splurge on?
Pedicures!!

What is your favorite restaurant?
Tomato Head

What is your favorite word?
Joy

What is your least favorite word?
puke

What famous person do you most resemble?
Dolly Parton - Ha!!!

What is your biggest pet peeve?
Cans of soda , that have only been partially drunken(is that a word?!?)

What three possessions do you value most?
My wedding ring, my car, my camera

What three non-material possessions do you value most?
my family, my health, my friends

What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend?
Eat pancakes with Bill (He makes the best pancakes!!)

Who is your favorite daughter-in-law? Ha! Just kidding you don’t have to answer that one!!!
I love both of my daughter-in-laws and feel very blessed to have them in our family..Love you, Cameron and Danielle!!

We love you Amy and hope that you have a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

love always,
Cameron and Andy

Hint

So no one could figure out who I was talking about yesterday. That or you don't know how to comment, hmmmm. So I will try one more hint before the BIG reveal tomorrow.

This person...used to drive a sweet suburban that even the kids at West High School were jealous of!!!!

Happy guessing!!!! See you tomorrow!

Love always,

Who's birthday is this week...?

Someone has a birthday this week. I am not going to tell you who until the BIG day! I am excited about it though.

Tomorrow I will tell you about our fun and LONG weekend. It was fun and relaxing. I wish we could do it all over again tomorrow!!! Check back tomorrow for a weekend post.

One hint on who's birthday is this week. Feel free to guess in the comments.

This person runs in half-marathons. Who is it?

Good luck.

Love always,

going to the chapel

Although it was not really a chapel but a HUGE and BEAUTIFUL church in Morristown.

On Friday evening, I got off work and rushed home to get ready for the rehearsal dinner at the Sunsphere to celebrate a very dear friend and his bride to be. Chris has been a friend of Andy's and mine since middle school, although Andy and Chris are much better friends since they went to the same high school. At our wedding Chris did so many memorable things: threw Andy's bachelor's party, helped make our rehearsal dinner video with his Pops, wrote a song just for us (made me cry), sang our first dance song, but the most important thing that he did at our wedding was standing beside us as we got married. Chris was a groomsmen in our wedding and it was so fitting as he is such good friends with Andy and he and I have become closer over the last few years.

In Jan of '08 Chris met Julie. Sometime in Feb he sent me an email telling me that he was going to marry Julie. In Nov he got down on one knee and asked her to be his wife. On May 16, 2009 Chris and Julie got married. The service was so sweet. My husband got to return the favor and stood beside Chris as he said "I do" to Julie. It was a beautiful day, with beautiful friends, celebrating beautiful people. Thank you Chris and Julie for letting us share in your life. I look forward to many dinners, many football games, tailgates, outings on the lake and time spent together with the both of you. We wish you all the blessings in the world and please don't hate us for the sardines.

Just so the rest of you know... the guys decorated Chris and Julie's get-a-way car. Over the many years Chris has come up with many catch phrases. These Chris-isms were written all over the car, cans tied to the back and the last and most disgusting thing was sardines were put on the engine block so it would stink up the car as they drove down the road. So gross, but funny. I would not have been happy if I had been Julie, but it is just the beginning of a lifetime of memories and love that we will share as friends. Congratulations Chris and Julie. We love you both very much!!!

A friend of mine from high school is a wedding photographer and a really good one. She took the pictures and posted some on her website. Jessica you are amazing!!!! Check out the ones that Andy is in. He cleans up well, if I do say so myself, and I do!!!!

http://503galleries.com/blog/life-in-all-its-busyfullness/

It's a cat?

On Monday I left for work at my regular time. When I got about a mile or so from home I got a call from Andy. He said, "I just left the house, but I noticed that we have a dead cat in the yard. I didn't do anything about it since I was leaving and I wanted to let you know so it would not surprise you when you got home." I was thinking great. Now when I come home from lunch I get to be the lucky girl that gets to go over to it. Remove the collar and call the poor family that owns this cat and tell them that their cat is dead in our front yard. What a great way to start off the week. I told Andy, "Thanks for letting me know and I will check it out when I go home from lunch."

I head on to work. Well, about 10:30ish I get another call from Andy. He said that he was back at the house and the cat, well, the cat is not a cat. In fact he is not sure what it is. It looks like a cross between a raccoon and a opossum. I was totally surprised, but happy that I was no longer going to have to call some family, tell them about their dead cat and then nicely ask them to come and remove it from our yard. Andy thinks that it could have been an albino raccoon. Is there such a thing? I told him to take a picture and he said that he would. Sweet Scott, buried it in the front yard. Not sure why they picked the spot that they did, but it is gone and I am happy about that. Andy did better than take a picture. He video taped it. I will have to get the video off his phone and on here somehow to show you what that thing was. We still don't know.

Here is a picture that I just got off the internet. Pretty gross. After seeing this picture I think this is exactly what was in our yard... and albino raccoon!

These pictures were found at http://www.pbase.com/almatic/raccoon. Not sure who took them but thanks for clarifying what it was!

After the race!

So after we finished running, everyone was ready to get back to the hotel. Andy, Bill and I were the last of our group to finish and everyone else had been finished from 30 min to 2 hours. Here is a breakdown of every one's times:

Scott 1:49.23

Cally 2:04.28

Amy 2:23.13

Danielle 2:26.32

Jeff 3:19.21

Andy 3:42.04

Cameron 3:42.04

Bill 3:52.04

Everyone did an awesome job!!! When we finished the race we all got to shake the Mayor's hand, yummy, especially with the Swine Flu running around. Then you headed over to get your medal, water and FOOD! Bill and I were so tired after running that Andy went around and got food for us. He was so sweet making sure that we had everything that we needed. Then he went and found the rest of our group. We finally made it back to the car and headed to the hotel. We showered and went to lunch. Most of us had to get home for work the next day so after lunch we loaded the car for the 3.5 hour ride home. Well, our 3.5 hour ride home turned into 5.5. We got stuck in Lake City and for a little while was unsure that we were all going to make it. 4 out of the 5 of us had just run and we were tired and sore. All we wanted to do was get home and sitting at an almost standstill in the middle of nowhere was not much fun. We made it home and I exited the car and waddled into the house with our stuff to unpack.

Well, the next day when I got up for work I could hardly move. Waddling was an understatement. It took all of my concentration and effort to stand and then start moving. That night, Monday, I was almost in tears because I was hurting so bad. At one point we, Andy and I, were in the kitchen and I was joking around with Andy. I said something smart to him and he gently tapped me on the shoulder. Well it was just enough to knock me off balance and I yelped in pain when I had to take a step back as to not fall over. One tiny step back almost brought me to tears. Later when I went to take a shower I was putting my towel down by the sink. I nudged Andy's deodorant just enough and it started to fall off of the sink. It was like slow motion and I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to move fast enough to get out of the way. Sure enough it landed right on my foot. Another yelp ensued. Andy came to check on me and I don't even know if I was laughing or crying. Laughing at how silly it was that I let it fall on my foot and crying because my whole body hurt and there was nothing that I could do about it. Andy felt pretty good. So good in fact that I called Bill to make sure that he was in pain and I was not loosing my mind. He reassured me that he felt just as bad as I did and it would go away in a few days.

It was 3 whole days before I felt better. Read that as not waddling around at work. Each day got easier and by Saturday I was able to take my first post race run. By Monday, Andy and I went and ran 3 miles. We both felt great so I guess we are ready for our next adventure... He asked me last night if it was okay for him to sign us up for our second marathon. I told him, just wait, I am interested but I need some time to wrap my mind around Marathon #2.

So if anyone is up for a marathon in NYC! I think that is where we are headed next!

Love always,

When Pigs Fly!!!

Well, that turned into a long minute... sorry.

So last Saturday Andy, and his whole family, and I drove on up to Cincinnati to run in the Flying Pig Marathon on Sunday. We arrived and went right to the Expo and got our bib numbers, t-shirt and all the free stuff that we could fit in our bags. Then we headed on over to the hotel. Well, I got to the room first and when I opened the door I headed right for my bed and plopped my stuff on the bed and immediately started going through all of the goodies that I got at the Expo. Andy followed behind and he said, "Wow, these are some pretty flowers!" I turned around to see a beautiful floral arrangement that he had sent to the hotel for my birthday. I had just walked right past them without even seeing them. Am I terrible or what? So funny, but he really is a sweet hubby and the flowers were/are beautiful.


We went to dinner that night at this really neat Italian restaurant in Cincy somewhere. The only bad part about it was we were put in this really big room that they use for big parties. Well we thought that our party of 25 was big, but there were 3 other parties just as big IN THE SAME ROOM! It was so loud the whole time that we could barely talk much less hear ourselves think. Andy's parents were so sweet and had two cakes (we had 25 people to feed) they brought with them to celebrate my birthday. The restaurant sang to me, I could not stop laughing and will have to show you pictures from that later, and I opened my presents. It was wonderful. One of the best presents that I got that night made me cry. I have been eyeing this picture that Bill took of Andy at the beach when Andy was about 3 years old. I actually have threatened to steal it off of the wall at both Amy and Gigi's houses. Well, Amy said that she was at Bill's office recently and saw another copy of the picture. She took it off the wall and gave it to me. I started crying when I saw it and am so happy. Now I just have to find the perfect place to hang it in our house. Thank you so much Bill and Amy for a wonderful birthday and a wonderful gift. After dinner we headed home and went right to bed, not that I slept but...


It is a good thing that I slept for 11 hours the night before because the night before the marathon I don't think that I slept longer than 2.5 hours. We had to wake up at 4:30 and be out the door at 5:00am to make sure that we got parked before they started closing down the roads. If I thought that my stomach was in knots before we ever left Knoxville, I was wrong. I have never felt more knots than I did that morning. When we got to the start of the race we headed into the football stadium for cover. It was sprinkling a little and I do not like to get wet. We waited in there for about an hour. Andy and Bill said that they were going to run to find a bathroom real quickly. The next thing that I realized was someone said that it was about 20 min til the start of the race and the group started to disburse. Did you hear me say I was nervous? The group was LEAVING, I had no idea where Bill and Andy were and I knew that if I left that spot that I would never find them. I also knew that I would not make the entire 26.2 miles without them. I started to cry. Yep right there in the middle of everything, tears were streaming down my face. Did you hear me, I STARTED TO CRY... BEFORE THE RACE! Luckily Amy turned around and saw how upset I was and told me that it would be okay and that she would wait until they came back. It seemed like forever, it was probably just a min, but Andy and Bill both showed up. Andy looked at me like I was nuts but told me that everything was going to be fine and we headed to the start line. We had to weave in and out of about a million people to get to the place where we thought that we needed to start. We got ready and before I knew it the lady on the microphone said, "10 seconds to the gun!" I turned to Bill and Andy and said, "I think that I want to throw up!" They just laughed and the gun went off and we were off and running.


The race was great and not half as bad as I thought. We started in Ohio, ran across to Kentucky and then back to Ohio all before the 5 mile mark. Here we are at 5 miles, thank you Bill for covering my face.

Andy was focused. This was right before we headed up the BIG HILLS. It was about 3 miles of gradual climbing. I had been nervous and this section of the course but once we reached the top, I still felt great and was ready for the rest. We left the half marathoners at the 9 mile mark and we were happy about that. Most of the people were running the half and as you can tell from the above picture it was pretty packed. When we split the running crowd was a lot smaller. Andy and Bill ran off to the bathroom at mile 13 and somehow in the mix Andy and I lost Bill. I was a bit nervous about losing him because Andy had mentioned that he may run off and leave me. He didn't. We stayed together for the whole race. Even our split times were exactly the same, pretty weird. I did hit the wall at mile 24 and did not think that I could run any further, but Andy was there to cheer me on and tell me that I was doing great. We made it to the Finish Swine with a time of 3:42.04. I was 65 second from qualifying for Boston. That was not my goal but gives me a reason to run another marathon. I know Andy is up for it, Bill what do you think? You want to do it again?

All in all we had a great time. I really want to say a BIG THANK YOU to a couple of people:

Megan,Granddaddy and Gigi: Thanks you so much for coming all the way to Ohio to cheer us on. It was so nice to have our personal cheering section and we love you all. Meg, can't wait to run with you in the next race.

Amy, Scott, Jeff, Danielle, and Cally- thanks for running. It was so much fun to do this as a FAMILY. I can't wait until the next race, whatever that may be. Now we just have to figure out what to talk about when we are together. :)

Bill: Thank you so much for going on all of the training runs with us. For keeping me positive and letting me know that it was okay to not always feel well. You were so nice to always stop for me and to listen and talk back even when I know you did not want to. I am not sure that I would have made it through all of those LONG runs without you. I really appreciate you and am so lucky to have you as a Dad! Thank you so much!

Andy: Not sure where to start. I have tears in my eyes. It is your fault that I ran this crazy thing and I love you for it. I love and thank you for pushing me further than I thought that I could push myself. Thank you for believing that I could run that far, that fast. Thank you for keeping me motivated and getting me out for each of those training runs. Thank you for never letting me back out of running (except that one time when I cried after 3 miles, but that was the only time), never letting me give up, and always giving your best and encouraging me to do the same. I love you more than you know. I love you! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so lucky to have you as my husband and can't wait for marathon number 2!!!!!

Here is our post-race picture, to show you that we did indeed survive. Next week I will tell you the post-race story, it is pretty funny!!! For more pictures of Andy and I during the race go here:

http://www.runphotos.com/browse.cfm?race_id=157&bib_number=4129

Love always,

in a minute

I can't wait to tell you about my 28th birthday and the Flying Pig Marathon, but I want to show you some pictures as well and I don't have them yet... so until then I will just let you know that we are happy, with life and running. That is all you get until later. I hope that you can wait that long.... love you all, always.

It is almost time...

So here we are. One day away from M-day. (I was going to put D-day but it is not THAT big of a deal and M for marathon or meltdown or missing in action, which is what I might be come Sunday.)

I keep telling myself that I have prepared and I am ready and I can do this. My stomach is still turning flips and at this point might just be in a knot. I went to g0ogle and they have a map section where you can see stuff (roads, houses, and buildings) at street level. I walked myself through the entire marathon. I sort of know what to expect now and that makes me feel a little better. I WILL get through this.

Andy and I will have run 497 miles preparing for this race and running it when we cross the finish line on Sunday. No wonder our shoes gave out! I am prepared. Have I said that yet? I guess I will just keep repeating it so that hopefully between now and 6:30 am on Sunday I will believe it.

I do want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that has put up with our incessant conversation about this marathon and for supporting us through all of this training. We, really I, have needed it and appreciated it more than you will ever know. I have had some breakdowns on some runs. I hate to type that but my sweet husband has put up with a lot. I am not always a nice runner, hard to believe I know, and he has stood or should I say, run beside me all the way. He is awesome even though it is kind of his fault that I am doing this. I remember running the Knoxville Half last year and at the end turning to him and saying, I am so glad that I am not one of those crazy people running the full. I have no desire to run a full marathon. Here I am a year later about to join all of those crazy people.

So tomorrow we will drive on up to Cincinnati, OH and check into a hotel to get ready for the race. I am excited and I WILL make it. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers we, really I, will need it.

Love you always!!!!