Louisville Triple Crown of Running: Race 3/3

After a few weeks of injuries and a couple of weeks without my running buddy, the Papa John's 10 Miler finally arrived! Two weeks ago after the 6-miler, I seriously had my doubts; how in the world was I going to run a solid 10 miles if I felt like this after only 6?? I only had two weeks to prepare, both physically and mentally.

I met up with some running friends from school, Missy and Kim, to run the 10 miler course the week before the race. We ran 9 miles and I felt really good afterwards....thanks to my new-found friend Gu!!! Gu is a slimy, gel-like substance you eat during a race that gives you energy, electrolytes, blah blah blah. It's disgusting....and awesome at the same time!

The morning of the 10-miler, Dan dropped me off near the starting line and Shelley and I met up, did some stretching, then we were on our way. Since the race was on the same day as the UK/U of L Final Four game, there were lots of runners supporting their favorite team. There was a lot of red being represented, understandably so, but the Cats fans were making themselves known as well. I wore all the blue running gear that I could to show my support for Big Blue Nation!

Shelley and I made one restroom stop, but ran the entire 10 miles! Our husbands came out at different points during the race to cheer us on!! Our official time was 2:01; a slow run but a consistent one and almost under 2 hours!

We can breathe a short sigh of relief......aaahhhhh.....but we only have one month until the Derby miniMarathon!!

This picture was taken at the starting line before the race! The temperature was perfect, but the himidity was high which was not in our favor.

After running 10 miles!! Dan took this pic of us outside Papa John's stadium, where the finish line was.

Woo hoo! Feeling good!

Louisville Triple Crown of Running: Race 2/3

This morning I completed the second leg of the Triple Crown races, the Rhodes City Run 10k.

My friend and running buddy, Shelley, was out of town on vacation, so I was left to run this one solo.

Luckily I have several fellow teachers at school that are avid runners. My assistant principal, Missy, agreed to be my "buddy" for this race. She is definitely more experienced and faster than I am, but she stayed with me through about mile 5. My goal was to just finish the race....I only ran once the week before due to hot weather and attending the Murray/UK games. I ran the entire race....with the exception of walking through the water stops.

Here are just a few pics from the day. It is a great feeling once you cross that finish line...but now I sit here wondering how in the world I'm going to run the 10-miler in two weeks?!?



The only Tepe in the race!





Missy and I after the race! We made it!





Some other teachers from Bernheim: Missy, Tonya, Josh, Kirby, me



Louisville Triple Crown of Running: 1/3

My friend Shelley and I decided several weeks ago to sign up for Louisville's Triple Crown of Running. It is a set of three races that are part of the celebrations leading up to the Kentucky Derby:

March 3: Anthem 5k
March 17: Rhodes City 10k
March 31: Papa John's 10 Miler

Yesterday was the first leg of the Triple Crown. This was the first race I've run since the Mini two years ago, while Shelley has done a couple half marathons and small races since then. We officially began our training at the beginning of January and it started off really great! We were running 4-5 miles on the weekends within a couple of weeks. About three weeks ago I was plagued by some type of achilles/ankle injury/tendinitis. We've slowly gotten back into the groove and now have the first race under our belts. I'm nervous about running 6 miles in two weeks, but am trying not to set my expectations too high. I just want to finish the race; if I have to take it easy and walk a little bit, then that's what I need to do.

Here are just a few pics from the race yesterday. Thanks Shelley for being a really great running buddy!!




Shelley and I before the race. This was taken inside Louisville Slugger Field.





Almost 9,000 runners participated in the Anthem 5k.






Shelley is super excited! I carried my phone with me to try to capture some pictures along the way.






Excited to be close to the finish line!



Valentine's Dinner a la Dan

Occasionally Dan and I will email each other during the work day. What a pleasant surprise to see an email from him as opposed to some mathematics institute, coworker, or (dare I say) parent!

On Valentine's Day I was, once again, pleasantly surprised when I walked over to my computer and saw an email from Dan asking if we had specific ingredients at home. He was planning on making us dinner for Valentine's Day!!

Now Dan is so helpful when it comes to helping around the house; he does the dishes regularly, cleans the bathroom, takes out the trash, helps pick up, does laundry......you're probably asking yourselves what I do to help around the house. (Dan is asking the same question. haha) But cooking dinner is not something he does very often. Yes he does the occasional pancake or waffle, but for Valentine's dinner we are talking an actual dinner!!

He had looked up a recipe for chicken parmesian online, printed it and went to the grocery for the missing ingredients. I gave him subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints along the way, but he did the majority of the work. It was fun to see him cooking and helping! It was actually very, very good!!



When the dish came out of the oven. I think my exact words were "Man, I'm kinda jealous of how well this turned out."





Salad, garlic bread, chicken parm, red wine. What we now call Dan's Famous Chicken Parmesian.





Was it romantic because of the candle? Or because we ate at our table as opposed to on the couch in front of the TV? Either way, I sure felt special on Tuesday. Thankful for you, Dan!



A Christmas Story Obssession

My family grew up watching the movie  A Christmas Story. I'm not sure when it turned into such an integral part of our holiday season, but it has a special place in our celebration every year. Four years ago we actually made up our own trivia game based on the movie; and we're not just talking what-is-ralphie's-little-brother's-name-trivia....we're talking name-the-song-on-the-board-in-the-classroom-trivia. Believe me, my brothers and sisters and I know way too much about this movie. And no, we haven't visited Cleveland to see the house where the movie was filmed, but we will someday!

This year I was particularly excited about an addition to my collection of A Christmas Story items. Over the past few years I've started collecting different items that represent the movie. Maybe someday I'll have my very own replica of the leg lamp...to go right in the middle of my front room window.





I ordered these figurines from Urban Outfitters while I was in college. They were my first purchase, besides the movie of course. They always make an appearance around Christmas. They look so much like the characters!





Someone bought this ornament for me a couple of years ago. Anyone that knows me knows how much my family and I love this movie!






My mom bought this ornament for my siblings and I a few years ago. There is even a small button you can push to hear lines from this scene of the movie. Dan laughs at me every time I press it.






I don't recall when I got this ornament, but I love the depiction of the soap scene!





This ornament was a 2011 addition! One night Dan and I were in Target and I was looking for an ornament for an exchange at school. I happened to see this leg lamp ornament that lights up!! I had to have it, but not for my ornament exchange. We bought it for our tree at home.




This leg lamp fleece blanket was bought in 2009. I use it all during the Christmas season.






This cookie cutter was a very exciting addition this year. It was featured in the November issue of Food Network magazine, and I practically jumped out of my seat upon seeing it. I knew I had to order it. Every year I make and decorate Christmas cookies...how perfect would these look amidst the others?! I could hardly wait to use it!





After several hours of baking, cooling, making royal icing, coloring the icing, and carefully piping every part, the leg lamp cookies were complete. They turned out very well for my first try.






They were quite FRA-GEE-LAY once they were baked. My mom forbid anyone to eat them until after Christmas. Finally on the 30th when we were all leaving Fulton to go home, she let us eat one.



A Crafty Christmas

This Christmas I decided to use some of my time off from school to handmake a few items for various people or events. This school year hasn't allowed for much extra time for doing crafty things, and I usually get an "itch" to make something around the holidays. My ideas came from friends, blogs, or things I've been wanting to do for some time.

Burlap Wreath

This item came from a simlar wreath made by my friend Casey, which she featured on her own blog. Her version was a fall-themed wreath, but I made two Christmas wreaths and gave one to my mom. I found a good tutorial online for how to make it and found some decorations for it at Hobby Lobby.

Fabric Cones

I got the idea for these fabric cones on a baking blog that I follow, Sprinkle Bakes. She had made some caramel corn, put it into individual bags and placed the bags in cones made from scrapbook paper and fabric. They were super easy! I used one to give a Secret Santa gift at school and made a couple to put in my parents's stockings. I tried some homemade roasted pecans and placed them inside the cones for my parents.

Burlap Door Hangers

I've seen these burlap door hangers online and in stores for several weeks now. I thought "How difficult could these be to make?" Well come to find out, they're a lot harder than they look. I tried my hand at a couple and know how to make the process a lot simpler next time. I made one for my cousin's 3-month old daughter and another for my family's Dirty Santa (White Elephant) Game on Christmas.

The Hutchins/Cash/Worley-Dean Thanksgiving Holiday

Family traditions. Everyone has them. But the Thanksgiving tradition that my family has is one that is pretty unique. We always thought it was kinda lame growing up, but I guess when you think about it, it's pretty neat.

This year was Dan and I's year to spend Thanksgiving with his family.....but I guess you could say I am the one that skipped out. My brother, who lives in San Diego and comes home maybe twice a year, and his girlfriend were coming to spend Thanksgiving with OUR family....in FULTON! So Dan and I spent the holiday weekend with our respective families, 5 hours away from each other in opposite ends of the state. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking about my family's Thanksgiving 2011.

Mom loves her some Christmas decorations! And each year it's fun to see what new things she has out or how everything is arranged. This year she had everything out before Thanksgiving, a first for her! It sure made it feel more like the holidays. And the fireplace always makes it feel more cozy, especially on the mornings where we just sat around talking and telling stories!

As long as us "younger ones" have been alive, our family has spent Thanksgiving Day at an old school house in Water Valley, Ky. Water Valley is a small, small town about 5 miles from Fulton. This school has been around since the 40's and our extended family has been coming here once a year on Thanksgiving for 50 years. In fact, this year was the 50th year! My grandma Cash, my mother's mother, and her brothers and sisters and their families have been coming here every year for 50 years! We usually have about 120 people!

The front of the school house. It is now a community center that people can rent out for special occassions, such as annual Thanksgiving get-togethers!

There are sitll pictures on the wall of all the different 8th grade classes that graduated from this school!

Since this year was the 50th year, we had t-shirts made and had a group picture!  My grandmother's maiden name was Hutchins, so our t-shirts say "Hutchins: a link to our past and a bridge to our future."

Do you really want to be at the end of THAT food line??

Micah, myself, and Mallory before eating lunch.

Our cousin Brad's daughter, Ava. I just had to include this pic!

Two of my uncles, Barry and Waymon. These are two of Dan's faves in my family. :-)

You know it's "big time" when the local news station comes to cover your family's Thanksgiving dinner! WPSD Local 6 came to interview the remaining 3 siblings of my Grandma Cash. There were originally 9 of them!

Thanksgiving night we did what all other families do: watch football. Because Allison went to the "real UT" as she calls it (University of Texas), we watched the Texas/Texas Tech game. She had to represent her Longhorns!

Friday night we got together at my uncle Mike's shop and ate chili, roasted marshmallows, played cornhole, and watched football. Lauren likes her mallows extra crispy!

I pride myself on being able to make the perfect S'more.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have from Saturday when we all watched the UK/UT game together. This is a very calm picture of Morgan and Duke, but you better believe that it was an exciting afternoon in our house. Becuase Fulton is right on the Kentucky/Tennessee border, about half of our extended family members are UK fans and the other half are UT fans. It was fun being able to be UK fans for once!



Saturday night some of the "cousins" went out to eat in Union City, Tn. Below is the conversation that happened before this picture was taken:

Morgan: Micah, take a picture of me, Maegan and Mallory.

Micah: Don't you want me to be in the picture too?

Morgan: No.

Haha. Morgan keeps us laughing all the time.

But somehow Micah found her way in the picture! Think we love scarves??

And Matthew and Allison had to join the group! Wow, time goes by fast. Morgan is 16 and not the "little one" anymore!

It was a great holiday weekend with family!