It all started 10 Years Ago

So, it was 10 years ago on July 21, 2003 that I received my very first email from Jeff...

 

So how did this Jersey girl, find a Michigan boy??? It all started in early July of 2003, a good friend of mine, Trevor, who was living in NC at that time, was up on business. We met for dinner and over dinner, the poor soul listened as I went on and on about not being able to find a good Christian man. I even had a whole analogy going on to how it related to buying a Jeep that I had done. Anyway... A week or so after Trevor was in NJ, he had to go to MI for business. Trevor and Jeff went to Penn State together and were roommates one year. Jeff and Trevor got together for dinner one evening and from my understanding Trevor heard a similar story from Jeff about not being able to find a good Christian girl.

 

A few days later I received an email from Trevor saying that he thinks he found a great guy for me; however, he lives in MI. Umm... MI? Where is that again exactly??? Trevor asked if he could send photos of each of us to the other and we both agreed. The next thing I know is I received this email and it was the start of my Cinderella Story.

 

As I told Jeff yesterday what the day was... his response... "Ten years... 4 kids.... that must have been one heck of an email!"



Big girl turns 6

Hayley turned 6 this year!  Can't believe how big (old) she is getting!  It is going by so fast!  For her birthday Jeff and I took her to lunch at Friendly's... just the three of us.

After lunch we opened presents and then after dinner we had cake and ice cream. 

A couple days after she turned 6, she lost her second tooth! 

Such a big girl, can't believe I have been blessed to be her mom for the past 6 years!!! 

Trip to NJ

We took a trip to NJ from June 29 - July 8.  Friday evening when we got there, crazy storms rolled in, with very high winds.  At about 6:30 AM we lost power.... for 4 DAYS!!!!  It was a reminder of how much we have and how much we rely on modern day conveniences.   Considering we had no power, no AC, no running water... it really wasn't that bad.  We spent a lot of time outside... luckily my mom had bought an awesome tree swing that entertained us a lot.  My Aunt Ruthie and Alan, also let us sleep at there house, so that made the days more bearable too, knowing that we would be able to sleep in a bed and enjoy some AC.

We never made it to the beach because after we got the power back, Blake came down with a high fever and ended up with Roseola.  He was such a good baby, considering he wasn't feeling well.

We did make it down to the boardwalk one evening and enjoyed the rides. The girls love rides!  Hayley even went on a pretty decent size roller coaster.  When it finished she said, "I was so scared, that was so much fun!"  Too Cute!  Cole wanted to try the "little" roller coaster, however a few minutes in he started saying, "me no like, me no like".

We also had a delicious feast of crabs and clams!  We also took the kids to the fireworks for the 4th of July.  The girl enjoyed them, however Cole was not a fan.  Once we were in the truck and they were not as loud, he like them.  He was calling out their colors and saying "pretty". 

All in all it was a great time visiting with the family!

10K

On June 16th, Jeff and I ran our first 10K race.  It was the Canton Liberty Fest.  Not only did we run the 10K, but we also were part of a large group of people that assembled ourselves as the Statue of Liberty to be entered into the Guinness Book of World Record.  Pretty Cool!

It was a CRAZY hot day and the race did not start until 8:30, which is late for a race.  I ran the race in 1:15mins and Jeff ran it in 55:08... he ONLY had to wait 20 mins for me to finish!  HA!  

Today is the Day

On May 16th, both girls had the privilege of singing up on the "big stage" at church with about 20 other kids to the opening song of our Wednesday Night New Life service. 

Neither of them acted like they were nervous or anything and they both did a great job!! They sang a version of Lincoln Brewsters, "Today is the Day".

So proud of them!

Our first 5K

On April 14th Jeff and I ran our first ever 5K race!!! We ran this as part of my training for the marathon. To read more about that check out http://iamrunningthechicagomarathon.blogspot.com/

It was a fun time, and it was made more fun just because there were so many people there that we knew and they were cheering us on!

For this being our first race, I think we both pretty much rocked it! Jeff especially! He is a natural runner!! He had a goal of wanting to run it in under a 9 min mile and he crushed that by running about 8:20 min/mile! Chip time of 25:49 He came in 15th out of 56 in our age group and he finished 99 overall with 783 runners!! Top 100 baby!!

During most of my training I was running an average of a 12 min/mile. I was still doing a run/walk combo until my last training run. The Wednesday before the race I tried to run my first 5K with no walking and I did it and my pace was about 11:50. as for the race I ran somewhere between an average of 10:16 - 10:30 min/mile! Woo Hoo!! I guess it does help to run with others! I can't believe I ran that much faster! As for my results I was 29th out of 72 for my age group (in the top half!!!) and was 399 out of the 783 (almost top half) Very Happy!!! My chip time was 32:38.

Our next race is June 16th and that will be a 10K!!

Easter 2012

We had a very nice Easter this year. On Friday, we did the annual Marshmallow Drop - however, I think we have decided that we will be forgoing that from now on. It is a shame, but unfortunately people do not "get it" and when you run out to get a marshmallow and there are none left - how much fun can that be!!!

Thankfully, this year instead of inviting people over for Easter Dinner we decided to hold an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and I think we will now be doing this as a yearly thing. We had some friends over and the kids had a blast doing the hunt together. Growing up we always did Easter dinner with a lot of family, but I always remembered the Easter Egg Hunt with all the cousins! It is such a blessing, that even though we don't have any family here in MI - that we have our "Friemily" Friends who are like Family!!! It was a great day!!