Warrior Dash

Two weeks ago David and I went to visit our best buddies in Tennessee and to participate in the "Warrior Dash." I'll let you google "Warrior Dash" but it's basically a 3 mile trail run with 10 obstacles spread throughout the run. Most of the obstacles involve climbing ropes or crawling under barbed wire but the last two obstacles include jumping over fire and crawling in a huge mud pit. Sounds insane, right? And you might ask, "why would anyone pay to get dirty and tired?"

Well let me just say that it was so much fun. It was completely out of my comfort zone and something that no one would expect me to do or even attempt. I am not a runner, I am not an athlete by nature (or genetics), and I am not even that strong (although I am working on that). But none of that mattered on race day. What did matter is that I (we) took a risk and tried something new. And we were able to finish the race without injury and with our marriage still intact...

Pre-race, I had visions of me melting down halfway through and David getting upset at me. I did panic in the beginning but David remained calm and cheered me on. In fact I think completing the race together helped us. We saw sides of each other that we don't normally see and we worked together as a team. There was something about crawling through mud, crossing a finish line together, and someone handing us crazy medals that made me realize I can handle any situation as long as I have David by my side.... :-)

Now I don't plan on doing extreme sports all the time but David and I did agree that we should do something like this once a year. If for no other reason than it keeps us motivated to hit the gym. We've set our benchmark and our goal is to improve each year.

And as a side note, the picture at the top of the post is after the race. We didn't wear those hats and my legs are covered in mud as well as every article of clothing I wore that day. The hats were in our race packet along with a great t-shirt and the best bib number ever..... The last four numbers: "7680" is David's birth year (1976) and my birth year (1980) combined. See, it was a sign that were meant to run the race together. :-)

My race bib

Flashback Friday - Caramel Apple Edition

Pumpkin bread, football, colder weather, candy corn, and caramel apples are just a few of my favorite "Fall" things. Even though the temperature today in Macon was in the upper 80's the calendar still said it was the first day of Fall. I always feel funny about putting out fall decorations, wearing jeans, and eating fall foods before it officially "feels" like fall. But I am beginning to realize that here in Georgia if I waited on the "cooler" weather to put out my pumpkins and order pumpkin spice coffee K-cups I'd only have them for a few days and then it'd be time for our Christmas tree. So today I started forcing "Fall" in our house. 

First order of forcing Fall is caramel apple dip. It was Maddy's choice for our Friday night treat and the subject of "Flashback Friday". The picture below is of Maddy in September 2008. She is eating caramel dip with apples for the first time.

Flash forward 3 years......

And here is Kate, eating caramel apples for the first time tonight.

My kind of girl, no need for apples, just give her a spoon.

At this point, Kate is tired of listening to Zack bark.

Here try some, it's yummy!

Picasso Strikes Again....

My little Picasso, also known as Kate, struck again. This time it wasn't her face that she painted but our living room wall.....

What you are looking at is Kate's first official crayon drawing on our living room wall. As Maddy pointed out it kinda looks like a cowboy hat on a stick... And I know what you are thinking.....don't you watch your kids, maybe if you watched them more closely they wouldn't paint their face or write on the walls. And you are correct, if I hovered over them and checked their pockets before I walked 10 feet away I could avoid cleaning up crayon. But I can assure you, I was only 10 feet away putting in a load of laundry when my little Picasso struck... She was so proud of her drawing that it broke my heart to tell her she had made a mistake in using the wall as her canvas.

The thing I have realized is that no matter how much I organize and put away crayons and other craft supplies there is always one crayon that gets left behind or hidden somewhere. Leave it to Kate to find it, it's like she has a fifth sense for finding crayons buried in the toy box. I've also realized that "Magic Eraser" is the most amazing cleaning product I've ever seen, it can just about get any stain off of any surface, including my little Picasso's artwork....