Running a Marathon

Well, I did it! I completed my first marathon on April 25Th. It was a very painful experience and if you would have asked me at the finish line if I would do it again I would have said no. If you would have asked me a few hours after the race or now I would tell you I would do it all over again. Big blister and all! The Kentucky Derby Marathon/mini marathon is a really fun race, especially if you are doing the mini. It was a tough race because there are plenty of hills and it was a REALLY hot day! I trained all winter in 30 degree weather and then all the sudden my body had to adjust to the heat. Everyone running the race had to adjust to the heat. We were all complaining :). I was a lot of fun training with new friends, and having a great group of people to run with. The only thing that would have made it better was if Jake was able to run too. He was planning on running, but he could not get the time off. April is a really hard time to try to get time off because nobody wants to work. They all want to go to the Derby events. Maybe next year....


Two weeks ago my sister and I took Harley (our horse) into his first horse show. He did well and we were impressed with how calm he was. Growing up we always had CRAZY horses that freaked out every time we took them to a show, but not Harley. He placed in all of his classes (although some of the classes were small) and won reserve Champion in Western. It was a great practice show, and it gave us a heads up on what we still need to work on. His next show will be in a couple of months.

Jake and I are very ready for vacation and we cannot wait to drive to WA this June. We miss family and friends very much. It will also be nice for our schedules not to clash. When I am at work he is home and when I am at home he is at work. It has been crazy these last couple of months. I guess we can't complain because Jake working a lot probably means that there won't be many more layoffs with his company.

Catching up....

Well, I guess I have a lot of catching up to do.. I will do a quick recap of the last couple months…..
Over Christmas my mom came to visit all of us here is Kentucky. While she was here she stayed with Jake and I, but we always ended up spending all of our time over at Jamie’s house. We had a wonderful Christmas, and All of us enjoyed watching Adi open her mountain of gifts. It was out of control. It was really great that Jake had both Christmas and New Years day off. We got to spend a lot of time together over the holiday’ s.

Over my Winter break my sister and I started mentioning to our husbands how nice it would be to have a horse again. My sister and I grew up with horses and wanted nothing more than to get back into our passion. We looked into some of our options for leasing and buying, but for Jake and I buying a horse is not a realistic purchase as of right now. Jamie continued to look for horses and found a wonderful 5 year old quarter horse down in Tennessee. Jamie and Joe decided to purchase the horse, and she got him right before Christmas. My sister is amazing and has shared her horse with me. I have taken on half of the financial responsibility and we go down and work with Harley (is his name) together. We have so much and a lot o good laughs trying to remember everything we learned about horses growing up. Let me just say we are a little rusty, but it is coming back. Jake has been down to see Harley a few times, but I think he prefers airplanes to horses.

Work for me has been going well, and I just cannot believe how fast this school year is flying by. I think part of the reason it feels to be going fast is because we have missed so many days of school due to weather. So far my school district has to make of 10 days of school, which puts quite a damper on my summer vacation. I love having snow days, but I always hate them at the end of the year. It is a love/hate relationship.

-Ice Storm-
One of the major weather events that occurred this past month prevented my from going to work for a full week. The weather was calling for snow, but it ended up being pretty much all freezing rain. It rained ALL DAY LONG…. I have never seen ice so think in all my life. I woke up the second morning of the winter storm to no power. Jake was on a trip, and when I tried giving him a call I realized I had no cell phone service. All the cell phone towers froze up, and people could not make calls. It is a really weird feeling having no way to know what is going on or being able to talk to people. I thought about getting in my car and driving over to Jamie’s house, but after looking out the window I made the ultimate decision that I would rather be stuck in my house than stuck in a ditch in my car. I decided the best option would be to go back to bed and try to sleep some of the day away and hope that when I woke back up the power would turn back on. Around noon, my sister showed up at the door, and told me that her and Jake were worried about me because they couldn’t get a hold of me. Jamie then realized that at my house she too did not get cell phone service. Jamie said she could not believe that she made it to my house without getting stuck… Well, when we went to drive back to her place we were stuck. She made it to my house but we couldn’t get out of my the driveway. After spending 45 minutes trying to dig the car out, we gave up and walked back to her place.

We continued to get freezing rain and so many people lost water, power, and phone service. that school was called off for the week. It took a full week to get the roads cleared and power back on for schools to be in session. There are still people without power.

After that winter event I have decided I am ready for SPRING!!! There are always so many thing to look forward to in the Spring here in Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby and all of its festivities start in the Spring. One of the events is the Kentucky Derby Marathon and mini marathon. Last year I ran the mini, but this year Jake and I have decided to train for the full marathon. Jake has become quite the runner, and continues to kick my butt on a regular basis. I have joined a running team to motivate me to train, and it has been a blast getting to know new people.

Jake has been flying on reserve this month, but has still gotten in a lot of hours. We were both hoping he would get called this month, but he always does. J Jake has also joined a basketball league at church. He has really tried to make his work schedule around the games, but he hasn’t always been lucky. He missed the first couple of games but has been able to all the games this month. It was actually quite comical, because Jake found out that before he was able to make it to the games they had lost each and everyone of their games. As I watched their team the first thing that came to mind was the movie, Mighty Ducks. Jake’s team got slaughtered, but thankfully Jake had a great sense of humor about the whole thing. The next week Jake’s team looked like the Mighty Ducks did towards the end of the movie. They played so much better, and played an amazing game. Jake and I renamed his team the mighty Ducks.

Jake has really enjoyed playing basket ball again, and I am sure I will not hear the end of it when the season is over, but hopefully he can find another league so he can continue to play.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone from home soon… Maybe Spring break??

Race for the Cure

Race for the Cure

Louisville

October 11, 2008

Signs of Fall

The thing I missed while living in Florida was the change in season. This will be our first fall in Kentucky, and the first fall we have seen in three years. Come to find out, Kentucky is beautiful in the fall. not only are the leaves changing colors, but the weather has remained warm and comfortable. We have not seen any large amounts of rain in a couple of months, which has put the area in a drought, but the abundant sunshine has made it easy to enjoy outdoor activities.

Jamie and Joe arrived in Kentucky on September 10th and have been staying with us. They put an offer on a house about a half of a mile from us. We live in the same neighborhood, but she will be living on the other side of the subdivision. They are hoping to close on their new home in the next few weeks. Until then, I am enjoying having them in my house when I get home from work. It is so nice to come home to a full house. Jake and I have had a lot of fun playing with Adisyn and seeing Alyssa grow like a little weed.

The first weekend Jamie and Joe were here the remnants of Hurricane Ike ripped through our area and created a HUGE windstorm. Over 300,000 people lost power and I was out of school for four days. We lost power at our house for about 12 hours. It made for a fun night of Barbequed food, and playing cards under candlelight. Although, I have to admit it was very convenient to wake up the next morning with the power turned back on. We didn’t have it nearly as bad as some people who had to wait two weeks to get power back. Know one expected the wind to pick up as much as it did. In fact, it kind of came without warning. Jamie and I decided to go for a walk, because it started out as such a beautiful day. As we headed down the dirt road near my house the wind all of the sudden picked up, and a constant gust was blowing dirt, leaves and debris towards us. We booked it home, thinking…. What was that all about? It was actually quite comical, especially the frightened look on Jamie’s face. The city of Louisville had never had a wind storm of that magnitude, and it happened to come just after Jamie and Joe arrived. Welcome to KentuckyJ !

Since Jamie and Joe have been in town we have been doing a lot of new things in the area. One thing we have learned about Kentucky is that every weekend there is always a fall festival. A few weekends ago we went to the Mt. Washington fall festival. Adisyn got to see a life size Dora the Explorer, and take a pony ride. Last weekend we headed out to Bardstown and visited My Old Kentucky Home State Park, and a Civil War Museum. Bardstown is a very small historical town with many shops and restaurants. It was wonderful to smell the fresh scent of fall, and learn a little bit more about Kentucky.

Work has remained busy for Jake and he has been taking frequent overnight trips to Washington DC. He enjoys this trip, because he get a lot of rest time and can go explore the city. A few weeks ago he and his Captain rented bikes and rode ALL over DC. Needless to say, he couldn’t walk the next day. He had a good time though, he just paid for it later. School has been going really well, and is keeping me busy. I have a wonderful class, and my stress level at my school is so much less than it was in Florida. I love the content area I get to cover in fourth grade! I am teaching life science, and Kentucky State History (on top of reading, writing, and math) I am learning things I never knew before, which makes it fun because I am learning with the kids J (they don’t know that though) !

The next couple of weeks will bring a lot of excitement with Jake’s Birthday coming up, Jamie and Joe moving into their new home, My Dad coming to visit for Halloween, and Jake and I taking a trip to Arizona for a friends wedding!

Summer has come and gone!

Well, summer flew by and I am back at work teaching fourth grade. It is always so hard to go back to work after two months off. There are a lot of fun things that have occurred in the past month and that are coming up!

Last month I traveled to Hawaii to visit my sister and be there the birth of her second child. I wasn't sure if I would make it since I was flying standby and ticket prices were WAY to expensive to buy, but I made all three flights to Honolulu and all three flights home. It was such a blessing!

While in Hawaii I was able to spend time with my Mom, Steve, Joe, Adisyn, and Jamie for two weeks. When I arrived we were all thinking baby Alyssa would make her way into the world within a couple days of me being there. This was not the case. It took two very long weeks. It seemed longer because I was so excited, but Jamie finally gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, and I am so proud to once again be an Auntie.

When I arrived back to Louisville Jake and I left the next day for West Virginia to pick up his brother Basil from the Airport. Our 4 day adventure would take us white water rafting on the New River and backpacking in the Red River Gorge. We always have a great time when Basil comes to visit and we definitely wear ourselves out each and every time.

I started school as soon as we got back from that trip, but I still have much to look forward to. On September 10th my sister and her husband Joe are moving to Louisville, Kentucky..... What are the chances? Joe will be a Army recruiter for the next three years in Clarksville, IN. As many of you know my sister and I are VERY close. We talk so much on the phone that I am sure our husbands will be thrilled that we won't have to use so many minutes on our cell phones calling each other ALL the time:). They will be staying with us until they find a house to buy, hopefully in Shepherdsville, but they will be looking all over the Louisville area. I cannot wait to spend time with both Jamie and Joe and of course Adisyn and Alyssa. This will also be the very first time Jake and Joe will have met. Joe was deployed for our wedding and any other chance they would have had to meet. They are alike in a lot of ways so I am sure they will become great friends.

Due to the fact that Jamie and I are in the same location we will no longer have to fight over who is coming to see us on Holidays. In October my Dad will be coming to visit to help Jamie and Joe with moving and help out with whatever they need. I cannot imagine trying to move from Hawaii to Louisville with two young children. I know that they are grateful he is willing to help out.

In December my mom and Steve will be making their first visit to Kentucky and I am excited to show them around. I am hoping that my family will love Kentucky so much that they will also want to move here:). (yes, I know, fat chance )

Here are a few pictures from Hawaii and the trip we took with Basil..Adisyn with her new purse from Cricket. She loved it!

Adisyn and I in the hospital waiting to meet baby Alyssa.

Baby Alyssa

Joe and his girls

Basil and Jake (Red River Gorge)
View from the trail

VIsiting with Cricket and Jake

Clingmans Dome

Jake and Cricket at Clingmans Dome

Relaxing at the cabin

Our cabin
This week Jake's parents came to visit us! We have had a very fun and exciting week. Cricket and Jake flew into Indianapolis on Thursday. We picked them up and drove 6 hours to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where we rented a small log cabin up in the Smokey Mountains. Not only was it beautiful, but it was relaxing and a nice three day getaway. After spending three days in the Smokey's we headed back to Louisville to introduce them to our dog (Derby), and show them our new house. On Sunday we spent the day downtown Louisville where we visited Churchill Downs, and took a tour to learn all about the Kentucky Derby.

Today we visited the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and took a 2 1/2 hour tour through mammoth cave. It has been so great having them here. We will definitely miss them when they leave!

Today I also heard from my sister and found out that her and Joe will be moving to the Kentucky/Tennessee area within the next few months. Although they are not sure on the exact location it is so great to know that they will be closer to us. I am still crossing my fingers for Louisville.

On Wednesday I will be leaving for Hawaii to be with my sister and Joe for the birth of their second child, Alyssa. I am so excited to spend time with them, and of course play with little Adisyn. I will keep everyone updated on my trip, and post pictures of Alyssa as soon as I can.

Keeping Family and Friends up to date!

I decided a blog would be a great way for family and friends to stay updated on everything that is going on in our lives. I will try to write often!

For those of you that we haven't talked to in awhile I will recap the last couple months! Jake and I moved into our new home in Shepherdsville, KY a little over a month ago. We love our new home, but it did not come without some challenges along the way. What we didn't realize about buying a brand new home is how much work would still need to be done after moving in. The thing about new construction homes is they don't come with a sealed driveway, blinds, toilet paper holders, shower rods, towel racks etc. Couldn't they just put those things in for you? After putting up our first set of blinds we realized we were in over our heads. It was going to take us forever, especially without a drill. We got quite a bit done, but the real blessing came in June when My Dad and TC came to the rescue. They helped us on so many home projects, and we are very grateful for all they have done. In the week that my dad and TC were here we stained the deck, sealed the driveway, put in toilet paper holders (gotta have those. no one wants to look all over the bathroom for the toilet paper.), towel racks, added flower beds, created storage space in the Attic, and my dad even planted a garden. The house is coming along and the major projects are done for now.

Living room

Guest Room Game Room/Garage Finished Deck Garden (Thanks DAD!)
I am out of school for the summer, and Jake has been flying a lot. Jake has had a few long layovers so we have made short vacations out of them. The first trip was to Maine, where we spent the day in Acadia National Park. Jake's second layover took us to Washington DC. We spent two days walking the city and seeing all of the monuments. The best experience about both of these trips were flying on Jake's plane. It was my first time flying on a jet that he was actually flying. It was a great experience and I know Jake had a fun time with it. He and his captain told everyone over the loud speaker my name, where I was sitting, and said that I was a dancer and was selected to be on the next season of dancing with the stars. Everyone started clapping. The thing about being a pilot is everyone on the plane believes everything you say. It was VERY funny although a little embarrassing.

Next week we are looking forward to Jake's parents coming to visit. We planned a three day trip to Gatlinburg, TN, where we are renting a small cabin at the foot of the Smokey Mountains. I will update everyone with pictures when we return. We are excited to show them around Louisville and show them our home. It is great to see family and I know a week won't feel long enough. Hopefully Jake and I will be able to make it home together sometime in the next few months.