The abundant life!!!

I've moved!

2007-01-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

Come and see me at my new blog host:

mercysmama.wordpress.com

be sure to change your bloglines!!!!

Tagged by Beth

2006-12-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

I have been tagged by Beth. So here goes 6 wierd things about me:

1) Oversleeping by 15 minutes will cause me to not go the the gym. Crazy I know, but if I don't get my behind through those gym door right at 6 am... I feel like I am better off not going because I won't get a "full" workout. My hubby thinks this is quite silly.

2) Seeing laundry, clean or dirty, OUT, can occasionally send me into a maniacal tail spin. It's a good thing we moved the washer & dryer to the basement from our first floor bathroom.

3) An eigth to a quarter of an inch can sometimes determine my mood- when it is the amount of room or lack of room in the waistband of my favorite jeans. Currently, it's a good mood. Let's hope it stays that way through the next week of parties and overeating!!!

4) I used to take my fork and squish crumbs on my dessert plate to get that last bite... and never thought anything of it until I saw this "trait" of mine being described by my husband at my bridal shower. The bridesmaids made a video of my then-hubby-to-be and asked him all sorts of questions. I haven't done this since.

5) I like a little coffee with my cream.

6) I have never completed a garment for myself!!!! They are all UFO's- sizzle, my cabled sweater, a lace shawl... socks...

2006-12-20T06:29:00.000-05:00

sadly, grandma's ballerina slipper will have to be frogged. Not enough yarn to complete the other foot. My LYS doesn't carry the yarn anymore, but I purchased something comparable. The puple has a little fleck of pink in it and I figured that since I was doubling up on the yarn, I could just used the other yarn w/ it and it would be fine. I'm off to frog the slipper before I go to work this morning.

And of course there was a 50% off bin at my LYS! I picked up three hanks of this luscious alpaca- 100%. It's going to be a "test-tube" scarf for my hubby to see if he is allergic to alpaca. The store owner thought that maybe he was allergic to lanolin, which was something used to creat wool or process it or something in machine made sweaters (like the ones he has from a store and not my knitting needles). So we will see. I wonder if I could whhip this up before his b-day next week. Hmmm.

And a few mercy pics for your viewing pleasure...

I think she wants to go somewhere in her carrier. Too bad Starbucks won't let us come in there anymore.

2006-12-19T06:33:00.000-05:00

My mom's house sold... and she made us come and get all my junk that was left in my old room. I found loads of colored pencils and other random crafts over the past few weeks...

We packed up our friend's truck and took her stuff to the intermediary home (my grandma's) where she has been staying since gram came home from the hospital in August. Gram wasn't able to live alone and has been terribly sad since my grandfather died. Thankfully, having my mom there seemed to help gram get better! Mom will be moving again in February, when she and her longtime BF marry.

We took my old bedroom set, which I will admit is somewhat dated, but it's free, a five piece set, and it has some sentimental value to me. I figured that once we have children it would be a perfectly not-new-so-I-wont-be-upset-when-they-write-in-marker-all-over-it type of furniture. We also got my mom's washer & dryer, which is much newer than ours. After Christmas we are going to hook them up. We will be the yuppies who have two washers and two dryers. We need one set per person, c'mon! I am excited about the double duty machines. We go through alot of laundry, mostly because of me and my gym clothes. I can't imagine what will happen after we have little ones.

It was a long day.

On Sunday, we traveled to Syracuse and met up with my husband's uncle & family. We had lunch/dinner at this great restaurant, Plainville Farms. Very family friendly, which was good because the cousins are 5 & 6.

We exchanged gifts and look at what Mercy got! A cat tunnel! She's small enough for a cat tunnel- good news because the agility tunnels are a hundred bucks. Mercy promptly climbed inside her tunnel and layed down for a little nap. Now it's her favorite place to hide. We can't wait to get the connecting tunnels.

I did manage to get some knitting done. One more ballerina slipper for gram. Sadly, I think I have run out of yarn on the second. I hope that my LYS still carries this lovely alpaca.

One more fat ankle photo for your viewing pleasure.

The weekend would not be complete without a mad dash to the zoo, err, I mean post office. Two days in a row, and both were quite busy. Sunday at 9 pm and Monday at 11 pm. Of course, we will be there again tonight. One more gift to send. We hope.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Some FO's and UFO's

2006-12-14T21:44:00.000-05:00

BEHOLD... the ballerina slipper. Thanks Marisol for the pattern!

Eww I have fat ankles. And ghastly white. You'd never know I work out, huh?

Mercy has nice skinny ankles. She seems to like her grandma's birthday gift too!

I used Lambs Pride worsted in Deep Charcoal.
It took me about a week. (amongst various other projects!)
The combination of the wool and mohair makes a really neat fleck in the yarn that I truly enjoy. But alas, these will be gifted to my mother dearest this weekend for her umm... 39th birthday... same age for the past fifteen years- you know the drill!

I have had a setback on sleeve island. Looks as though I may be here longer that I thought. Somehow I missed a stitch or row or something that would cause this gaping hole. I continued knitting on for several inches. Time to frog.

Thankfully the other sleeve was not adversely affected.

This weekend we will be traveling to Syracuse NY for the day to visit with some family that is in town... so I hope to get some car knitting in and get the sleeves back on track to wear for Christmas. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.

I also got THIS surprise in the mail... well not really a surprise... I ordered it...

Karen Kingsbury's fourth book in the Firstborn series "Family." Her books are awesome and a superfast read! The stories are so gripping that you will stay up until all hours of the night reading just one more chapter... and another... and another.... (I finished this one in 2 days )I highly recommend her books!

Sadly, I will have to wait until spring 07 at the earliest for the last book of this series.

A piece of sad news... it appears as though my dear hubby may be ALLERGIC TO WOOL!?!?!?! How can this be? The fiber that I have come to love is the very same item that makes him sneeze and have hayfever like symptoms? Nothing I have knit him has made him sneeze... but then again, I haven't actually finished knitting him anything in wool. A woolease by Lion Brand scarf many moons ago... the camo yamaka was acrylic... Basically when he wears store bought wool sweaters he feel sick with watery eyes, scratchy throat, sneezy, etc.

But I have been secretly doing all this research on how to design him the coolest snowboarding sweater. Clipping photos from magazines the whole nine yards. Now is it possible that I may have to knit such a masterpiece in acrylic?!?!

Is alpaca the same as wool? If he is allergic to wool, is he allergic to cashmere? Oh the sorrow!

Maybe I should buy a skein of every time of fiber and do an allergy test.

Handmade Christmas Gift Swap!

2006-12-11T06:19:00.000-05:00

Bright paper packages tied up with string.....

These are a few of my favorite things.

Look at all these goodies that Beth sent me! Look at this handmade scarf- so beautiful. I never knew that was how you made diagonal ribbing. I can't wait to try one myself. I wore the scarf all evening. A cute little ornament to go on the tree... cinnabon coffee... a new willowtree figurine for my collection... and even Mercy got a gift! Thank you Beth! You are the best!

This week has been a busy one, as I have been absent from blogland for a week! I did, however, receive a really cool pattern from Marisol for ballerina slippers, and I have one slipper done, one to go for my mom. I hope I can whip up a few more pairs for some others. before Christmas.

I cast on for a new and improved camo hat for my hubby. No yamaka this time. I changed the needle size and cast on about 10 more stiches. Let's hope!

Have a great Monday everyone!

It's a Bird.... It's a Plane.... It's a Hat?

2006-12-05T06:37:00.000-05:00

It's a man's hat! No, it's Mercy's hat!

Wait, I know - a camoflague yamaka! One must keep kosher on the hunt, you know. (to all my Jewish friends, please don't take offense!)

We sure had a good laugh about this one last night. I simply could not control my laughter. Hysterics. A camo yamaka. That's what it looks like! We need to find a very small headed hunter, maybe a child, to give this to.

So it's back to the drawing board for knitting the hubby something. And I will knit on circulars ad check size/ try on often!!!

2006-12-03T07:17:00.000-05:00

Happy: Horray! It looks great, doesn't it?

Sad: 'Tis too small to fit over my heel and onto my leg.... and will be frogged to start over!

It appears that I have some knitting issues. The gauge thing is due to the particular STYLE in which I knit. I started knitting the English way, and somewhere along the way I picked up Continental. And in my Continental ways, my stitches are a bit loose. Hence my gauge problems.

So I am trying to teach myself to knit again in the English way so that I can have more even stitches. Oh, the pain of knitting slowly and awkwardly again! Anybody have any other ideas?

Here's a few pics of my Christmas decor... the tree is not done yet... still looks a bit plain to me. The ballerina ornaments are from my Aunt A. She gave me an ornament just about every Christmas- and emailed me that she was concerned that I only had a mini tree that didn't have room for her ornaments! Nope- see Auntie- they are up! The others are too. :)

And check it out- we went bowling on Friday. Ad after a three year hiatus from the lanes- I won! The first match, anyhow. I beat my hubby by 1 point. Pin. something. He beat me in the second game.

After bowling, we decided to go out for dessert. Sadly, the local ice creme place was closed, so we opted for the upscale dessert store near our house. What a contradiction, bowling alley pizza and high end- after an opera level desserts.

Nice, huh?

Have a happy Sunday!

Fair Isle HELP!

2006-11-30T19:52:00.000-05:00

Somebody please tell me, am I doing this right? The carrying the yarn thing... is it supposed to look like this in the back? I think the front looks ok...

tangled lights

2006-11-27T06:58:00.000-05:00

So the tree is up, but I am now faced with this chaos. And it's been sitting on our floor for four days now.

Now matter how careful you are when storing Christmas lights, they always end up like this eleven months later.

I am happy to say that I am now on sleeve island for my cabled sweater project. It took half a dozen attempts to get the right gauge again and to get two sleeves going at the same time, but I am on the island. And I will not be voted off until I complete my mission! I finished the ribbing last night.

I cast on for my wild knee socks... and discovered after 1.65 rounds that my aluminum dpns just aren't going to cut it. So off to the LYS store I hope to go tonight. :)

2006-11-24T17:43:00.000-05:00

Hmmm.. My Julia yarn has come in the mail for my wild think socks!!! 25% Alpaca, 25% Mohair, 50% wool. 100% yummy. Of course, I must meet up with the lovely Lynne to split up the rest... and then I will be off and starting these lovely socks. Which I have nothing to wear with. YET.

I did my gauge swatch with size 7 dpns, as recommended, and my square was too big by a half an inch (see below). So I went down to size 6, and it seems to be right on...

We were also working on our Mercy photoshoot for her 2007 calendar. We'll take orders!!!

Here we have Mercy in her pink faux crocodile carrier and two fall month photos. We were thinking October for the basket one and November for the cornocopia one.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving and I got some lovely knitting done. I am now on the armhole decreases for my cabled sweater. Taaaa Daaaa!!! Pretty soon I will be on sleeve island- a place I have never been before...

I was able to put up a few Christmas decorations today:

Well, I gotta go! ELF is on TV!!! We love Will Farrell. :)

2006-11-20T21:13:00.000-05:00

Back to my regularly scheduled Blog...

Thankfully, a new book came to my rescue Saturday when I was feeling quite upset about the bike path dangers.

"Found" by Karen Kingsbury.

I read it in about a day. Typical for Karen Kingsbury books. I picked it up at the store Saturday afternoon and had it finished before church on Sunday! I absolutely ADORE Karen Kingsbury.

I started reading the Redemption Series, a five book series that follows the lives of 5 children, last summer and have been hooked ever since. What I love about her books is that they tell stories of people that are faced with real temptation, with real trials- sometimes they make the right decisions and sometimes they don't. But, despite what choices they make, God forgives and is the only one able to piece their lives back together. I would HIGHLY recommend her books! A great Thanksgiving read!

I also did some swapping shopping. :) Always a joy to do that.

Check out these Napoleon Dynamite socks I found! It was meant to be- I was strolling through the store to pick up a catalogorder and passed the sock section. This pack was the only one like it. YEEEESSSSSSS! SWEEEEET!!! They are for my cousin... Hope she doesn't read this!

In knitting news... I heard from a little birdie that the yarn she ordered for the wild thing knee socks arrived today. According to my calculations, as I ordered one day later than she, mine should arrive tomorrow! I'm still pluggin' along on my cabled sweater... I hope to finish the front this long weekend.

So... what are your Thanksgiving project plans?

ANGRY. SCARED. FRUSTRATED.

2006-11-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

I am ANGRY. I am SCARED. I am FRUSTRATED.

This sicko is back.

DNA proves bike path killer is back

This man is known to have attacked 10 women over the past 20 years in MY CITY. He killed three of them. The last one, Joan Diver he killed on the anniversary of his first murder, college student Linda Yalem. SICK.

He attacks them from behind and strangles them with a rope or cord. Tapes their eyes, nose and mouth. Rapes them, and leaves them for dead. Why on earth would somebody do this?

I am a runner. I was supposed to go running on the bike path this morning. I was going to meet the Team in Training folks and run 10 miles. I would be running with other people, but sometimes I would be by myself if there wasn't somebody there that was my pace. But with this breaking news over the past few days, that the murder of Joan Diver just two months ago was NOT an isolated incident, that it was this twisted man... I stayed home.

It's frustrating. This is supposed to be a safe place to live. I love to run out on the path. It is so beautiful there. Nice surface, nice views, miles marked to keep track of you pace, etc. I feel like I am in jail. The police are warning women not to run alone, in the dark, on paths or shortcuts. There have been more attacks that have not been reported to the news. I know- the policeman who patrols the path warns us. He told us of the specific mile markers to be aware of.

I am going to run this afternoon down busy Main Street on the hard concrete that kills my shins, with my dog, a cell phone, and maybe my swiss army knife. I wish I had pepper spray. I think I want to take Karate. Like, learn how to kill your attacker in 90 ways with a toothpick type karate.

Living in fear is not fun. This guy has got to be caught.

The yarn has been bought...

2006-11-16T07:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, the yarn has been bought. After my last post, my friend and knitting mentor, Lynne, totally encouraged me to knit these wild knee socks and offered to knit a pair along with me! So, after some coordination we decided to split the yarn, hence defraying the cost a bit. PLUS Lynne found a great seller on ebay who had the yarn- UnRaveled Yarn. Check her out. The shipping is VERY reasonable and the prices are great too.

Now I am racing home every day to see if the yarn is here yet... And one of the many things that is great about knitting with Lynne, in addition to the fact that she is an incredibles source of wisdom for all things crafty, is that I think it will be very difficult for me to mess these up!

I frogged my sock. My way-too-big sock. I aim to start again sometime... I just need some motivation and to make some UFO's FO's.

On the running front, I have had some highs and lows this week. I wanted to run 10 miles on Monday after work, but again, too dark & scary. Plus a woman was murdered on a bike path two months ago.. so I have a little more reason to be scared. So I hop on the treadmill and the thing wouldn't let me run 10 miles! Only 8. Which was ok, I just picked up my pace. I felt HORRIBLY sick after I got home though... exhausted, dehydrated, hungry, sick to my stomach... Clearly I did not replace electrolytes. Bad Dana. BUT I did run under 9:45 minute pace for 8 miles and complete a trekking class during that time. So it's ok.

The Turkey Trot is one week from today! I hope to get one more hard workout in and then taper a bit. Then run the race and come home & eat a whole lotta stuffing. And knit by the fire. mmmmm.

A new obsession is brewing...

2006-11-12T20:44:00.000-05:00

Yes, those are Runners World magazine on my coffee table. And yes, that is Vogue Knitting waaayyy off to the right.

I seem to have gotten the running bug. Now, you might say that I have had it for a while, seeing as how I just completed my first marathon a few weeks ago.

But... its... gotten....worse.....

I go to the gym and hop on the treadmill (no more running outside during the week- too dark and scary). I start running at a comfortable pace and then this voice tells me to go faster. I try to fight it, but there's some logic behind the voice. And coercion.

"Make it worth your time."
"The faster you run, the quicker you'll be done."
"You'll burn more calories."
"Don't you want to get faster?"
"Don't you want to win a medal?"

AHA! The clincher. Don't you want to win a medal? Well, duh. I still have some competitive bones in my body. So I listen to the voice, and keep hitting the increase speed button until I am running for dear life, afraid of what will happen if I slow down and fall off the back of the treadmill. Every day, a little faster, a little farther. More reps in the weight room. I can feel it baby, its hurting, I am sore and I am getting stronger!

I got a little payoff for my hard work yesterday:

Third place (for age 20-24) in the Lindsay's Legacy 5k. With a time of 26:10. Not bad considering I haven't run a 5k since high school.

But... I .... must.... improve.

The Turkey Trot is a week and a half away. That's 5 miles. I can't wait!

Now, I am still knitting, don't you worry. I have a few inches of cabled sweater front happening, but nothing significant to post.

I have, however, found some new possible projects, though I should be casting on for Christmas gifts...

These legwarmers/knee highs are so cool. And so complicated. Considering I am a sock failure. Eh hem, I mean a yet-to-have-accompished-a-sock-knitter.

Anyway, they have fair isle (which I have never attempted) and embroidery (which I have also never attempted).

The pattern is from Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting and is designed by Kristin Nicholas. Kristin seems very cool. It calls for Nashua Handknits/Westminster Fibers Julia (kid mohair/alpaca/wool). It looks like these will set me back about $80! Hmmmm Merry Christmas to me?

And this fabulous belted cardigan, designed by Margaret O'Leary, also found in the Fall 06 Vogue Knitting.

What I love about it is that there are 2 main cables and the rest is stockinette! Very nice, considering my current cable project has cables everywhere.

Off to start the week! Gotta run run run! Faster & Farther!

How Much?

2006-11-10T06:32:00.000-05:00

Have you ever thought about how much your time is worth? Could you put a monetary value on your time? ALL of your time?

Many of us have a "billable" rate at work and a salary that sort of translates to an hourly wage (and unless you own your own business and have zero overhead, your billable does NOT equal your hourly wage).

But how much is your time worth? Ever think about that?

I did some preliminary calculations for me:

There are 168 hours in a week. I spend:

42 - 56 of them sleeping (6-8 hours sleeping a night, usually on the low end.)

40- 50 of them working

10.5 of them showering/ getting ready/ hair, etc.

3.75 on my commute to work a week.

2 of them grocery shopping

10.5 cooking at home & cleaning up the kitchen

8 or so on laundry and cleaning the house

12 or so at the gym.

Leaving me with 12-39 ish hours left a week to do other stuff. Like spending time with God. And my husband. Like knitting. Or walking the dog. Or blogging, reading, etc.

So I think I want to have my own "billable" rate in order to have the mindset that time IS valuable. Since I don't like mental math, I am just going to tell myself that my rate is $100/ hr. Pretty steep, but spare time is precious commodity!

So, without further adieu, I present to you the back of my cabled sweater. It cost me $2,000 in time.

I wonder what the front will cost.

One last look...

2006-11-07T07:03:00.000-05:00

... before the frog pond.

I vow to DO A GAUGE SWATCH. I didn't before. I figured it was just a sock, how important could gauge be?

I have learned my lesson. ALWAYS swatch!

Now, how to do that when you are making up your own pattern, like how I am for my hubby's hunting hat, I don't know. Any suggestions?

2006-11-02T06:31:00.000-05:00

Mercy just looks so pitiful in my post from Halloween that I just had to post a happier one of her. I didn't want PETA to get mad or anything- haha!

See, she really is happy. I really do take good care of her. I don't torture her with the outfits all the time. She does look adorable in sweaters, though.

This picture was taken the night we got home from the marathon- little Mercy had been at "Camp Grandma" (aka- my mothers) for the weekend, and she was so happy to snuggle in bed with us!

Look at what my in-laws sent me for my birthday:
The Angle of Light Willow Tree figurine.

I LOVE Willow Tree things. I have a few others too:

Angel of the Kitchen, from my mom

And Promise, from my in-laws.

I have a Christmas one too, but c'mon, it's only November!!!

By the way, my husband and I were priveledged to be a part of the first annual Lauren Castanza Challenge this past weekend. It was a 5K to benefit the Lauren Castanaza Foundation, which is raising money for medical mission.

Dear hubby came in fifth place overall and won his age group with a time of 20:55 for a 5 k. Amazing, huh?

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

The most amazing thing to me is how God can take something that is tragic, and turn it into something beautiful.

This is a picture of Lauren with her parents.

Lauren was called home to heaven last year while hiking. One moment, she was on this earth, the next moment, she was on the way to meet her Savior.

It was a tragic accident, she lost her footing and slipped off a path and over a cliff. Thank God that he doesn't waste pain.

She was a 19 year old young woman in love with life and her precious Jesus. Her writings were incredible, along the lines of Spurgeon, CS Lewis, and Chambers. Her journals shows her heart- that it beat for Him who saved her.

Her other love was biology and medicine. She studied very hard and was an exceptional student. She even did research during the summer at a local University. Her dream was to become a professor of medicine and go to third world countries to teach. But she wanted to teach the people not only how to be a doctor or nurse, but how to take care of their own people, not move the the U.S. to get rich.

Her mission on earth was completed on July 30, 2005. But for her family and friends, our mission is not complete. We are still here. Which is why Laurens parents have created the LRC Foundation to continue on in her honor and for Gods glory.

The race was the first event. It was a success. I am so thankful to have been a part of it.

We can't wait for next year.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

My lone trick or treater, a less than thrilled Mercy in her Halloween Costume. She looked so mortified to be wearing it that I took it off her right after this picture. Poor Mercy. It has been too dark for us to go running lately before or after work.

Sadly, I too, am an Octoberfest failure. I know that the point was to just be working on socks, and there wasn't technically a deadline, but c'mon, everybody knows that they were trying to finish a pair by month end.

And even worse is that I will have to rip this guy out- for the third time! I am having gauge issues. I can't believe that I really knit that loosely. I didn't do a gauge swatch for the socks. I know, I know, my fault.

I will eventually finish the sock. I love the colorway! Plus I have never finished a sock.

I also didn't do a gauge swatch for the baby sweater. And I am also having issues there as well.

BUT I did swatch for my cabled sweater. And I did have to go down a needle size. AND it is coming along nicely. Almost done with the armhole decreases on the back. I hope to get that done tonight.

PS- Tomorrow is my birthday!

I finished the race!!!!!!!!!

2006-10-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

Me at approzimately mile 23 or 24. My dear husband ran the last 3 miles of the marathon with me and ran ahead of me to get this shot.

Yes, I purpsely bought the shorts so that I would stick out amongst the crowd. And yes, there are some no so flattering photos. But hey, I ran 26.2 miles, obviously I'm not going for glam here!

The micro picture of me at the finish line! Compliments of Nike. You can see the full size images available for purchase (at quite a ridiculous price) HERE

So... the marathon. The Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. My first marathon. It was an incredible weekend.

I had trained for over 18 weeks with Team in Training, logging the miles week in and week out and fundraising $4,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The people I met through my training were the most incredible, encouraging folks I have ever met. The longest I had ever run was 7 miles prior to commencing my training and I was pretty lax in the exercise department since graduating from college. Every Saturday I had a new personal record- 8 miles, 10 miles, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20.

We boarded our plane at 6 am on Friday, October 20th and arrived in San Francisco. We walked over to Niketown to pick up my race packet.

On Saturday, we met up with some of my relatives who live a short commute from San Francisco and hit up Chinatown. We found an awesome tea bar where we sampled various teas and were educated about tea drinking. I think I may no longer use tea bags! ha!

I got to bed fairly early Saturday evening and woke up race day at 4 am! I was so excited and nervous, I couldn't sleep anymore. I got up, got dressed, drank my coffee and spent some time praying for strength to get through the next several hours of running I was about to embark upon.

The race started in Union Square at 7 am. I went out WAY to fast, with my first 5 miles all being under 10 minute pace. THEN came mile 6, a hill so steep that there was an "Oxygen Station" at the top! Mile 6 was all uphill. Then it seemed like everything until mile 12 was uphill as well. I think there was one section running downhill, but my legs were shot by the time I made it to the halfway point. My mile times were sginificatly slower in the second half of the race.

The scenery was breathtaking as we ran along the Pacific shoreline, through Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, and down to Lake Merced. By the time I reached mile 20, it seemed like the miles were getting longer. My husband hopped in at mile 23 and ran the rest of the way with me. I was so thankful for him. His encouragement was incredible and very much needed at that point.

Mile 26- My coach came out to run the last mile with me. I was almost there. I couldn't believe that I was actually going to complete the marathon.

.2 to go- I started to kick it in. I couldn't believe that I actually had any kick left in me after running for 5 hours, but I did! As I approached the finish line with a lump in my throat, I high-fived my coach and raised my arms into the air in victory as I crossed the finish line.

I was immediately swarmed with finish line attendees. Men in tuxedos handed me a blue Tiffany's box with my finishers necklace. Somebody clipped my timing chip off of my shoe. I was handed a space blanket to keep warm and my finishers t-shirt. Then I finally got to see my husband at the other end of the chute.

He hugged me and told me how proud he was of me. I couldn't believe that the race was over.

I did it. I ran a marathon. 26.2 miles. Amen!

Getting ready for the marathon!!!

2006-10-18T20:14:00.000-05:00

I am getting ready for the marathon.

The cheering stations have been identified and dear hubby is working on coordinating that.

I am compiling a list of photos I want to take/ have taken to document this momentous occasion.

The bags are almost all packed with the exception of a few items- mostly gel/ liquid items that I am not quite sure what to do with. We are only going to be gone for 4 days and I definitely cannot afford to lose my luggage so I was planning on just carrying stuff on the airplane. BUT the no liquid ban could pose a problem, especially with the energy shots that I am planning to take with me.

In 30 hours we will be on our way to the airport to meet the team. Our plane departs in approximately 33 hours. I am so excited! And so nervous! I can't believe I am actually doing this.

I've trained for this. Almost 5 months I have been training. I've lost 12 pounds and hope to continue that trend after the marathon. I've raised money for cancer research. I have gone farther than I ever thought I could go and I am about to stretch my limits, mentally, physically, and spiritually. I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!

I hope to finish this sock and it's partner on the trip too! I started these socks for me, but it looks like they may be too big so I may give them to my hubby instead. Mercy thinks they are too big as well!

Well, I'm off to finish packing and packing Mercy's stuff for the weekend at Grandma's.

2006-10-16T18:04:00.001-05:00

Upper Glen Falls after October Buffalo Snowstorm

2006-10-16T18:04:00.000-05:00

Mid- Glen Falls after October Buffalo Snowstorm

2006-10-16T18:03:00.000-05:00

Lower Glen Falls after October Buffalo Snowstorm

The creek is at least 10 feet higher than it usually is...

Mercy's new friend

2006-10-16T08:58:00.000-05:00

Mercy has befriended my grandmother, an indefinate houseguest due to no power or heat at her home. Mercy knows her as "Big Grandma." And for some reason, Mercy wants to be around her, sleep next to her, cuddle by her- quite funny considering grandma is not a dog person!

My mom is getting jealous, I think. But for a little while Mercy snuggled with "Little Grandma."

I did make some progress on my cabled sweater pullover from Knit It!

I am now ready to begin the armhole decreases!

I will begin packing tonight for our trip to San Francisco for the marathon! I can't believe the marathon is only a few days away. 18 weeks + of training will hopefully pay off with a strong finish! I did slip and fall in my office parking lot Thursday during the storm and have a slightly pulled hamstring and a slightly swollen foot, but I am praying it gets better in time!