I did it!

Last week I mentioned that my running group had cancelled, well this week there was no snow to fall back on, so I got up at 7:00 am to run. In my mind, I was coming up with a hundred excuses to not go...it's cold, I'm tired, I have a headache already, I'm not good at running anymore, etc. etc. etc. But I made myself go, and I'm awfully proud.
Although I never considered myself to be a "runner," I did run quite a bit in undergrad. I ran a couple of 5K's (note one of them the only other runner I beat was a little old lady, and it was close!) and I did a biathalon with Rebecca that was a lot of fun. I told myself that I would be a crazy work-out lady even when I was pregnant, but I was so sick I never wanted to go to the gym. And then you're tired and sleep deprived and busy (for those of us that have real lives and not a nanny to watch thier children while they get paid to look good like celebrities do). And then because I work, the last thing I want to do when I get home is leave again for the gym or for a run. So that is my list of excuses for the past 2 1/2 years of why I haven't been running. Today I ran out of excuses. And the woman who leads the runs is amazing and motivated and it was really good for me. Like I said before, the end goal is a half marathon in October, but don't get too excited just yet. We'll take it one week at a time!
But to reward myself, and because I knew that my sleepy family would still be in bed, I stopped and got my hair did before going home. A productive day!
Enjoy the pictures of my Ally taking a bubble bath!

First Words

Little Ally has been on the back end of most things...she didn't crawl until she was 10 months, she didn't walk until 18 months. She didn't get her first tooth until she was over 1 year old. (That one may have been my fault. I often told people I hoped she'd never get teeth...her gummy smile was just too cute). Well, now she is 20 months and she still really doesn't talk. At least not in English. Oh, she'll go on and on and have conversations in what I can only guess is Bengali, but the only consistent word she says is "Dada." Go figure.
She often says what we decipher to be "What's that?" (was-sah?) and and she says, "Ohhhh" and sometimes "Thank-you" (pronounced dan-doo). Well, today she walked into the living room where I was reading, stood in the doorway until I looked at her, and said, "hi." It was so cute. I said hi back, and she laughed and ran out of the room, only to run back, wait for me to look, and say "hi" again. She did this a couple of times until one time she walked in and said, "caca." That's right, caca. I swear I didn't teach her that. I have no idea what she was trying to say, but I laughed forever that it came out caca. She truly is my daughter.


Look at my attempt to do her hair. I'm not any better at doing hers than I am at doing mine.

Easter Aftermath

My husband is addicted to sugar. Ice cream, candy, etc. etc. etc. So we often find ourselves at the store the day after any holiday to partake in the discounted candy. (Note the gigantic chocolate egg that still cost $5.00 at 50% off). But when we went to SuperTarget we found this tunnel and thought Ally would have fun with it. Turns out Matt has fun in it as well. He put on the giraffe "costume" and chased Ally around the house.




Another fun thing we did this last weekend: we decided to enjoy some of the finer things that Wisconsin has to offer, so we went to The Old Fashioned and enjoyed some fried cheese curds.


Delicious. Of course, I pretty much like anything that's been fried, including
pickles. Which leads me to a sad tale of a girl separated from her fried pickles. The best fried pickles I've ever had are at The Black Eyed Pea. Needless to say, many areas of this great America we live in lack in some of the finer Texas cuisines, including kolaches (which are actually Czech but noone outside of Texas has ever heard of them), fried pickles, and Tex-Mex. I was more than ecstatic to find that Applebee's offered fried pickles on their menu and have enjoyed them on occasion. I went to eat with some of the ladies from church before leaving Tucson and found to my great disappointment they no longer offered this delicacy. There is an Applebee's here in Madison, but they don't offer them on their menu anymore either. It's a sad, cold, kolache-less, fried pickle-lacking world my friends.

Easter and Snow?

Despite our most hopeful wishes, spring is definately NOT here yet. It snowed on Friday and is currently snowing again today. I thought we were over this. Up until Friday, most of the snow had melted off the patio and I was hopeful that this was the end of winter. But it did give me an excuse to put off the running group one more week. (I am thinking about joining this running group at church. Their end goal is to run a half marathon, which would be really awesome to be able to say that I've run a half marathon, but that of course would involve actually running a half marathon). Despite the weather, Ally sure looked cute in her spring dress!

Ally and Snow????

Her first impressions were a little rough:


She did like her new boots though:



And I think she's beginning to become somewhat acclimated to the situation:

We Made It!!!!

A little out of order, but some pictures of our packing/moving/saying goodbyes and even some from my Master's completion celebration lunch (photoshop Kylee's face in there...she was there in spirit).

Moving Day 3

We stopped at a Walmart to purchase a new portable DVD player, this time with a hanging traveling case to prevent further misshaps. We made it all the way to Des Moines and got to see my good friend James Snideman! He looked great and seems to be doing well. It was good to see him, I'm sure my momma Salt was a little jealous!

Moving Day 2

Well, we made it with few misshaps, other than the portable DVD player fell and broke. OH NO! What to do with Monster's Inc.? Well, this day only involved 3 hours of driving, in which Ally slept. We drove into Denver, spent a fun time with Matthew and Debbie (Debbie did Ally's hair...it was so cute. If her whole nursing thing doesn't work out maybe she can move her and become Ally's personal stylist). Anyway, we got to see my lovely Laura Chorak Milroy who insanely wants to continue school for about 4 more years. Of course, when she is finished, she can make about 200K working 2 days a week. Not too shabby.