Running Into the New Year

Hello all! Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did. We went home for what can only be described as a "whirlwind" trip. We drove to good old MTZ the day before Christmas Eve, spent Christmas Eve with my family, then drove to Bloomington on Christmas morning and spent the day with Greg's family. Then drove back to Lincoln the next day. Whew! We had a great time though. I took a few pictures but I haven't moved them from my camera to my computer yet and I'm too lazy to do it right now so I'll have to include them in my next post. Sorry!

It snowed about 6 or so inches in Bloomington on Christmas Eve through Christmas morning which made for an interesting drive. The roads actually turned out better than we thought they would be, so that was a relief. I was BEYOND thrilled to find that Lincoln received NO SNOW AT ALL!!! Based on the never-ending blizzard that was winter last year, it is nothing short of a miracle that we received no snow in this most recent storm. I don't want to be a grinch, but since Christmas is over, I'm going briefly embrace my grinchitude :-) I can't stand snow. The only thing I even remotely like about it is that it looks pretty when it's falling and I'm inside, warm and cozy under a blanket, preferably with a cup of hot cocoa in hand. I don't like walking in it, driving in it, touching it, and don't even get me started on what happens when it melts. So, long story short, I am happy as a clam to be back in snow-free Lincoln.

In other news....I decided that my lengthy hiatus from all things exercise had to come to an end. I'm not going to say how long it has been since I have run, but let's just say I had to thoroughly inspect my running shoes this evening to make sure spiders hadn't taken up residence in them. After ensuring they were indeed spider-free, I hopped on the treadmill to attempt a 3 mile run. Yowza!!! I decided going at what I thought was a "slow" pace would be a good way to ease into things. After all, I was running about 15 miles a week at a pretty decent pace not too long ago. Surely my body could handle my new slower pace without a problem. Ummm....no dice. After about 2.1 miles, I had to walk the rest of the way. And when I got done...I was COUGHING like I had developed a black lung or something. What the heck happened??? I almost feel like I'm starting completely over with running again. I'm running in the State Farm 10 miler in March so I really need to get my behind in gear.

I also decided that I'm going to do one more half-marathon in 2011 and then I'm going to do a full marathon in 2012. It actually makes me nervous just typing that. In both of the half-marathons I have run, I distinctly remember reaching the mark where the marathoners and half-marathoners split from one another (at around the 13 mile mark) and thanking my dear, sweet heavens that I did not sign up for the marathon because there was just no way....

Well, folks, there is going to have to be a way because I'm gonna do it!!! If anyone out there wants to do it with me, just let me know!

Ok, well I'm going to throw in the towel on what has become a post quite worthy of the the blog title Babbling Brooke :-) Hope you all have a fantastic evening. I promise to post some Christmas pics in the next post.

Ben's Birthday and Other Random Topics

Ben's 2nd birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I still can't believe how fast the last year has gone by. Doesn't seem possible. Actually, looking at the bags under my eyes, you would think 5 years have gone by. Seriously though, it's so much fun to look back at videos and pictures of when Ben first joined our family. He has changed so much.

He really seemed to enjoy his birthday. I think he understood that it was a special day for him. He definitely understood how much fun it was to get a whole bunch of new toys in one day :-) Here are some pics from the day....

He really tore into his cake. He ate almost an entire piece!

Gigi came to visit for the weekend. Below she and Ben are displaying one of his gifts....a tent from my Aunt Jill and Uncle Mike.



Below: Me helping Ben open his new Zhu Zhu pet. He lost his old one a while back, so he was excited to see the new one.





It was a great day celebrating Ben's second year of life. We are so blessed!!!!

Another topic I would like to briefly discuss concerns Ben's stroller. The main reason I'm bringing this up is we're going home for Christmas this year and I'm sure Greg will be broadcasting it to everyone so I'm just going to get it out in the open. Here goes....a few weeks ago, I almost backed over Ben's stroller in the Hy-Vee parking lot. The only reason I didn't actually run over it was a kind bystander decided to risk her life and stand behind my car, waving her hands like she was on fire. Bless her heart.

And to make matters worse, I also left it in the Kohl's parking lot a few days ago.....and didn't even realize it until two days later when I was at Von Maur with Ben. I opened the back of the CRV and SURPRISE!!! It was gone. Luckily, I still have a few brain cells left in the midst of all this holiday madness and I immediately knew where I had left it. Thank God!!!

I really have no defense except the fact that I have been moderately sleep-deprived lately and in the short period of time it takes me to transfer Ben from the stroller to the car-seat, I apparently develop a mild form of Alzheimer's and forget that I even had a stroller in the first place. The poor stroller. Let's hope I can make it through the rest of this year without inadvertently setting it on fire or dropping it off a bridge or something.

Well, that's all I got. I doubt I'll be blogging again before Christmas, so I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. For those of you whom we'll be spending Christmas with....can't wait to see you soon!!!

Love, Brooke, Greg and Ben