Autumn Days

I LOVE autumn. Love -- Love -- Love it! We did the pumpkin patch at Alternberg's last weekend, a yearly tradition. Lydia is holding the perfect pumpkin she found for her cousin Laurel.

The pumpkin on the left was designed by Lydia. We baked the pumpkin seeds and Lydia thought they were nummy.

We also took some time to walk around in the woods last weekend at Standing Rocks Park. I love the smell of the damp leaves. We were scoping out the bike trails for when Ken and I get our new mountain bikes.

It was nice to get Scout and Zoe out for a walk too. Scout turned 12 on October 5! (Scout is the black/silver/white Siberian Husky and Zoe is a Samoyed.)


I stayed up til midnight last night working on my cards for the card swap this month. The theme was "masculine". They are due tomorrow and of course I didn't start them til last night. :-) I am really liking this card swap group I am doing. It gets my hands busy with my card supplies and the cool thing is I get 5 different cards back for inspiration. It never hurts to have extra cards on hand either.
I mentioned recently that I wanted to take a beginning quilting class. Well, I started this past Tuesday! In the class I will be learning how to make a quilted wallhanging. It is a sampler quilt, 40.5" x 40.5". We are using the book "Start Quilting with Alex Anderson". The class runs til the week before Christmas. This is what I came home with after the class...

The instructor told me to choose the border fabric first and then use that to pull out three shades of two colors from that piece, as well as four neutrals. I chose this fabric as my border...
I pulled out green from that and chose these three greens...
...and these three purples...
For my four neutrals, I pulled out the gold color...
In the first class I learned how to make a nine-patch block.
I also learned how to make a rail fence block and I made three of them.
Unfortunately(!!) after I was done with these four blocks, I learned they were not 6.5". I sewed my seams a hair to big so I need to rip apart all four blocks and sew them again! I also have to do five more nine-patch blocks and five more rail fence blocks before the next class on the 30th! I am looking forward to it all though. I used a Bernina 240 something or other in the class and sewing on it was like cutting butter. I am hoping to get back on the same machine this Saturday for a few hours to work on my homework.

Team TBD Won!

Here we are after finishing the marathon -- three life-long friends who will always remember this moment and what we accomplished together. Tara's husband Andy named us Team TBD (Tara, Becky, Dana a.k.a To Be Determined prior to the run) and coincidentally that is the order we finished in too. Tara finished in 5:19:13, Myself in 5:21:54, and Dana in 5:24:26. After the run, Tara and I compared the marathon to child birth and remain undecided as to which was more painful. Dana said it was the toughest physical challenge she has ever put herself through and that is saying a lot because she is a very athletic woman. Dana had a lot of pain because of her t-bands and had to walk the last 8 miles. Even with doing that, she came in only a couple minutes after us. We are 3 very determined ladies.

We wore our finisher shirts (below) afterward and had many people ask us if we won. Our response? Yes, we won! We finished and therefore consider ourselves winners!


Here we are on Thursday, picking up our race packets...


On Friday, Tara drove me up to Mount Hood...


Where I got to see a lot of snow...



We ate lunch at Timberline Lodge (where Tara tells me The Shining was filmed) on Mount Hood...


The next day, Tara took Dana and me to see the Pacific ocean (my first visit there). This was taken by Seaside...


The night before the race, Tara, Dana, and I joined other runners for a delicious pasta dinner in downtown Portland...


And then came race day...


It was a clear, cool morning, perfect for a run. I had butterflies in my stomach as we stretched with Tara's training team on top of the 24/7 Fitness Center. I retied my shoes at least 5 times, loosened, tightened, and shifted my water belt -- a bit of nervous energy prompting me to be sure I had everything just right before taking off. Deep down I knew I had done all that I could do to prepare for this day and I felt ready. There were more than 7700 runners and after the gun went off, it took us 10 minutes to get to the start line.

I felt great for the first 9 miles or so but as we reached the 9 mile point, my right calf started to cramp up. First signs of dehydration. Dana is telling me how to work it out...



By mile 18, I had horrible muscle cramps from my waist to my toes. Even my toes were curling up. I was drinking lots of fluids and energy drinks but it wasn't enough to get rid of the muscle cramping. What I learned after the race was that I needed to take in more salt.

When the following picture was taken I had less than a mile to go. My calves and gluts were still cramping badly and I was in a lot of pain.


But I made it to the finish line with tears of joy and a feeling of great accomplishment.


Tara's family supported us along the route. Her husband, Andy, rented a van so we could all ride together and he painted "Go Team TBD" on the windows. Tara's mom gave us each a gift the day before and had sunflowers for us when we had only a few blocks to go, sent by Tara and Dana's sister, Tama. All of the support really meant a lot of me. The cheering kept me going when I felt like I didn't have much left in me. Shortly before the end of the run, I saw a sign that I don't think I will ever forget. It said "The pain is only temporary but the marathon memories will last a lifetime". This is so very true.

Thank you to everybody who supported me by donating to the JDRF. I sincerely appreciate your support.

Heading to Portland Today

I couldn't sleep much at all tonight/this morning...it's 3:18 in the morning, I don't know what to call this time of the day. It's time to get ready now because I have to leave my house in 40 minutes to catch my flight to Portland. I am just too excited. Today is my 10th wedding anniversary too. Happy Anniversary Ken! Thanks to those who are supporting me by donating to the JDRF. There is still time to donate...please visit my fundraising page.

Getting Ready for Sunday - THE BIG DAY!

The marathon is this coming Sunday! This evening I started my list of things I must have packed by tomorrow night. I will need to leave my house by 4 a.m. on Thursday to catch my flight to Minneapolis where I will spend a few hours before catching my connecting flight to Portland. Taking my knitting (scarf I am making for Lydia) for the layover in Minneapolis and flights. I am looking forward to seeing Portland for the first time and visiting with my friends. I'm also looking forward to the finish line and the whole experience of the marathon. Tara booked us a seat for the pasta dinner the night before the race. She also made reservations for massages at the spa for the day after. She is one of my most organized friends and I admire that about her.

I went on my 4th annual vacation to Door County with some close family friends this past weekend. As usual we shopped and laughed hard and enjoyed another fine play put on by the Peninsula Players. If you are ever in the Fish Creek area of Door County Wisconsin, stop at Villaggios for a delicious Italian dinner and glass of wine. I can't wait for next year!

(Left to right: Tina, Linda, Diane, Me, Connie.)

26.2 Miles to Help Find a Cure

Hi Everybody. Please visit my fundraising page to help me raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) by running the Portland Marathon (26.2 miles). Every mile I run will mean even more with every donation received. Please consider donating $1 for every mile I run? Thank you!

Ready for the Card Swap this Thursday

I finished my cards for the card swap happenin' this Thursday. The theme is "stitches". The frosting confetti does look yummy enough to eat but I wouldn't recommend it because it's not good to eat beads.

Happy Birthday Jurnee!

I am busy tonight working on a prototype for the next card swap due this Thursday. The theme is "stitches". I will post it when it's done. Once I decide on something, I need to make 5 of them. This is just a quick post to share with you the picture frame I made for Lydia's friend, Jurnee. Happy Birthday, Jurnee!

Lots of crafty things going on this week (and running too)

Last Sunday, Lydia and I participated in the 1 mile kids run/walk for the American Cancer Society. We purchased this flag in memory of my mom who passed away from cancer a couple years ago.

My craft pal and I have been doing many different kinds of crafting this past week. Lydia had some fun with her perler beads and made a snowflake.

I had to special order the fabric I need to do the Strength cross-stitch from MonsterBubbles.com and while I was waiting for it, I practiced up on my cross-stitch with the help of these free Sanrio patterns. Lydia asked me to create the Chococat pattern first so that is what I did. I am thinking of making a little pillow out of him for Lydia's baby doll.


I have started the Strength cross-stitch but the stitches are so dang small! Oh my goodness! I had to buy a magnifying glass. Seriously, I need it. It may take me forever to complete this project. I am thinking about asking the designer from MonsterBubbles how she works so small and if it's ok to miss a stitch here and there. How does one do something like this without going insane after 9 stitches (not even complete x's, just 9 diagonals!?). Her patterns are so cool but dang, the stitches are small!

I taught myself how to crochet a couple years ago. I am by no means good at it but I can make scarves. I have been wanting to try knitting but have had no luck in teaching myself. Well, I bought a children's book on how to knit and finally, last night I was able to cast on and do some garter stitches! You can see below that I am catching on. I'm not doing something right with the last stitch in the row. I was hoping to see my friend Dawn at church today so I could ask her what I am doing wrong. My grandma can help me too. She has a lifetime of experience and has made me and our family so many beautiful sweaters.


I am eager for our local quilt shop to start up some new beginner's quilting classes this fall. I want to learn how to quilt. Also, I am currently planning for a monthly craft club I want to hold at my house. Today I am going to work on a project for a good friend (I will post a picture of the finished project) and I must get started on my cards for the next card swap due this coming Thursday. The theme is "stitches".

21 Miler Results

Today was my longest run before I run in the Portland Marathon. Once again, I woke up for this run with a raging headache just like I did for the 30K. Felt like I was hung over. I think I was clenching my jaw in my sleep throughout the night because I was worried about today's 21 miler. I tried not to think about the run (worry) but my brain was working on it's own. I just returned from my run and my Polar sports watch tells me I ran for 4 hours, 9 minutes, and 45 seconds. Max heart rate was 178, average 158. Burned 2,501 calories. Ran for 23.67 miles. Max pace was 8:20, average was 10:32. Went through 4 Gu packets, 12 bottles of water, two of which were Accelerade. I had two bathroom breaks and needed to stop to stretch throughout the whole time. I took your advice Tara about the stretching to help with the achilles pain. The stretching helped to keep the pain in my achilles, knees, shins, and hips to a level that was tolerable. I saw a lot of my city and surrounding towns today! The weather was perfect this morning. Clear blue skies and chilly. I love this time of the year.

I was thinking about my life-long friends, Tara and Dana, that I will be doing the marathon with throughout the entire run. One friend lives in Oregon and the other about an hour to hour and a half away so we are training by ourselves. I am happy to be doing this marathon with them--a first for me and Tara, not sure about Dana. It will be something I will never forget.

My left ankle is sore. On the inside, between the ankle bone and heel where the indentation is. Going to take a bath now.

Window Frame Art Gallery is Complete

The window frames we made to display Lydia's artwork are finally finished and in use on the kitchen wall. Notice I said "we" made. Ken (my husband) was a big help on this project. He didn't ask for a craft project. :-) He cut all of the cork to size and attached it to the windows. He also did all of the hanging. I am really happy with the finished product. Now we will have a nice way of displaying all of the art that comes home. And I no longer have a bare wall. The kitchen feels more "homey" now. When Lydia came home from school and saw the wall she said "Wow!" so I think she likes it. I do plan on painting the picture frame this week with the same color I used on the windows.

Baking and Painting this Weekend

Yesterday Lydia and I baked a couple dozen chocolate chip cookies and delivered them with a card to our new neighbors to welcome them to the neighborhood. The new neighbors are from Illinois and are new to the area. They don't have any kids but one is on the way and they have an old dog too so we have that in common. We also baked several cakes and cookies in Lydia's Easy Bake oven. We tried a Barbie's Pink Cake Mix recipe but I think maybe we made a mistake in our measuring because something wasn't quite right. We had lots of fun though and will keep trying other recipes. If you know of other Easy Bake recipes online please let me know.

The weather where we live (WI) has been very rainy or humid for quite awhile but today was not the case so I got out the paint and put a coat of paint on my primed windows. If you've been following along with me, you may remember I started this project quite awhile ago. I am determined to finish it before school starts on 9/4. I have some of the cork cut out. For those of you not following me, I am going to put cork in these windows and use them to display my daughter's art work. I thought the cork would be nice because we can easily swap new art work which we have a lot of around here! After this coat is dry, I think I'm going to spray them with a semi-gloss. The paint is a flat finish and I think the semi-gloss will make clean up easier which will come in handy because these will be getting handled a lot.

I'm leaving shortly for a 13 mile run. I am not motivated at all to run today but I need to stick to my training schedule. Ken and I are waiting for our Power90 kit to arrive. It should be hear early this week. We're going to do the program together. I've heard you are not supposed to start weight training the last few months of training for a marathon but I am going to be extra careful not to injure myself. I'm looking forward to learning more about the nutrition plan. We both need to start eating more healthy.

Sum Sum Summer Time

It's been such a great summer. After the 4th of July we vacationed on Madeline Island by the Apostle Islands and a couple weeks after that we went to the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of MI. We hiked, biked, ran (I did anyway), relaxed, and enjoyed time together as a family. This is the second year in a row we went to both places. They are really beautiful places to visit. We enjoy the area.

I bought my plane tickets for the trip out to Portland. I'm looking forward to the marathon. I ran 18 miles last Saturday and did 10 minute miles without being well prepared at all (was out of Gu packets and only took 4 12 oz bottles of fluid, 2 having Accelerade) so I think I will survive the marathon. I've been doing 5 mile runs on my lunch hour this week and pushing myself to 9 minute miles which feels really good.

I am still working on the window frames I'm going to use to display Lydia's artwork in my kitchen. I have them all primed and I hope to paint them this Saturday. I also have some of the cork cut for where the glass used to be. I can't wait to show you the finished product on my walls. I will try to post pictures in the interim as well.

We picked up all of our school supplies for first grade today. It's so exciting to get new notebooks, folders, crayons, and pencils.

It's Official

I registered for the Portland marathon today! I'll be running it with two of my life-long girl friends, Dana and Tara.

Hanging out at Home

We were invited to a few things this weekend but we all needed some down time so we stayed close to home. Today Lydia tried out her new apron and a recipe, Reese's Haystacks, from her Silly Snacks recipe book that she got for her 6th birthday from her friend Jurnee. She did a great job at making the haystacks and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday I was able to spend some time at my sewing machine and got a ton of mending done. I turned two pairs of Lydia's pants into shorts because the knees were completely blown out on them.

Thankful for the folks who make crafty podcasts

I finished my cards for the next card swap I have coming due next week. The theme was "flowers". I really like this set from Stampin' Up. It's the Big Blooms set. I have a need to do a more substantial project next. Lydia is not feeling well today :-( so I might get some extended amount of time to work on something.

I did a 14 mile run this morning. I would like to get to 18 miles soon since the marathon is only 11 weeks away now! Before I left for my run I searched around on iTunes for some more crafty podcasts. Doing these long runs gives me a couple hours to catch up on my favorite podcasts so I'm pretty caught up and need more than 2 podcasts for this amount of time, especially when I don't have a CraftSanity podcast to listen to which are usually at least one hour. Jennifer admits she likes to talk and I am just fine with that because I like listening to her. I didn't find any new podcasts to add to my listening stash but I did find a cool video podcast from Crafted by Us. I watched two of the Crafted by Us video podcasts when I got home and I really enjoyed them. The show is hosted by Michelle Johnson. I've added a link to her blog under Podcasts. What I like about her podcast is that we seem to have a lot in common. She isn't stuck on one type of craft but likes to try all kinds of crafts and isn't afraid to try new stuff. Also, if something doesn't turn out, she is not bummed because at least she had fun with the process. Amen! I checked out her blog and discovered that she runs too! I'm thankful there are Jennifer Ackerman Haywoods, Sister Dianes (CraftyPod), and Michelle Johnsons out there who take the time to put these podcasts together. Thank you ladies!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

My crafting pal lost her second front tooth while having breakfast this morning. It's under her pillow right now, waiting for the tooth fairy.

We celebrated her 6th birthday on Monday with friends and family. My very crafty friend, Dawn, made this apron for her (the day of the party)! She also gave her the Silly Snacks cookbook Lydia is holding. Just the cutest things.


Lydia and I beaded some bracelets this evening. She made 4 while I made 1! She is really interested in crafting and I am thrilled about that.
My friend who inspired me to run a marathon this year is here in WI visiting from Portland, OR, and after visiting with her this past week I've regained the enthusiasm I had earlier for a 26.2 mile run. It wained a bit after finishing a 1/2 marathon and wondering if I could do two of those back to back. I'll be registering very soon!

Last Day of Kindergarten

Lydia's last day of kindergarten is tomorrow. The graduation ceremony was last week. Mom had more tears on graduation day than on the first day of school. Below is a thank you gift I made for her teacher. I got the idea from Somerset Life magazine and the owner of a local craft studio. I wrote a thank you note on the inside of the strip of decorative paper that is wound around the spool.

After the marathon last Saturday, I took most of the week off to recuperate and got back to running on Friday. I enjoyed an hour massage on Friday afternoon and got back to business on Saturday with a 12-miler. I absolutely love my new amphipod hydration belt to help keep me hydrated on the longer runs. The bottles snap on and off without much effort which is handy when you want to keep moving.

Stampin' Up Order Due by 6/28

You're all welcome to my Stampin' Up! demo discount of 20% off everything. I need to place my next order by 6/28. You can find all the catalogs at www.stampinup.com. I can have your order shipped directly to you. Please pass this offer on to anyone you think may be interested. I should mention there are a bunch of products being retired that are available while supplies last and they have that list posted at the SU web site.

I'm a Marathoner Now

The Madison Half Marathon on May 27 was a lot of fun. You can see in the photo above that my time was 2:13:21. That's 10 minute and 15 second miles. I am very happy with that as a first time half marathoner. It really helped to have friends and family cheering me on along the way. Here you can see Lydia sitting on the grass cheering for me .

The Madison Marathon was very well organized. There were a handful of hills but they were spread out enough that they weren't a problem. Lots to see along the way to make it an enjoyable run. I received a medal for finishing.


The following weekend, on June 2, I walked a marathon for Walk Wisconsin and that took me about 6 hours and 15 minutes. It rained for a couple of hours and the wet feet (even with an extra pair of socks at the 13 mile point) made the last 7 miles or so pretty uncomfortable. I would have enjoyed it more had my feet not gotten so wet. I'm still glad I did it however because I know that I can finish a marathon now.