new app alert

1919's rwandan christmas tree

awwww...

mp giving us our christmas gifts

(who doesn't need a candy cane yard ornament?)

getting table ready for christmas dinner

midnight snack (pioneer woman cinnamon rolls. yes please.)

**all photos lovingly taken with the morelomo app during this lovely month of december**

ready-made holiday playlist

guess where i'm going tonight? dave barnes christmas concert. where? else?

here's hoping all my faithful readers have already downloaded this gem:

it's so very baylor university circa 2003. trust me... you'll love it. and if you happen to be looking for another christmas ditty, allow me to introduce you to the song i have yet to take off repeat the last week:

i know, i know- we all have a love/hate relationship with coldplay, but doesn't this song immediately transport you to the south street seaport christmas tree? oh. just me? ok. that's fine.

last but certainly not least, you of course remember my christmas post last year regarding my favorite christmas song. i am happy to report that as a special wink to me, it has been re-done and is better than ever... available on itunes in its entirely, but this will wet your whistle for the time being...

merry, merry christmas to me.

first of many blogs on this subject, but let's start with this.

Street Children Project from Africa New Life Ministries on Vimeo.

hurry boy, it's waiting there for you

toto and i have tons in common. he blessed the rains down in africa and i'm flying out to see those rains first hand in nine days. he... um... well... i guess we just have the one thing in common at the moment, but you get my point.

everyone keeps asking me if i'm excited about this trip and i'm sure that's what i would be asking anyone i knew who was about to go to africa for the first time in their lives and realize a dream they didn't really expect would ever come to fruition... so, yes, to answer your question, i'm excited. but i don't have a whole lot of other things to say about it yet.

i'm not really nervous about getting sick or hurt or scared. i know it will be overwhelming to see the poverty, but i think it will be just as overwhelming to see how tightly the believers there cling to Jesus (especially as compared to myself). petikei will be in full force, so i'm definitely not worried about a shortage of laughter or things to talk about. people have come out of the woodworks to help support this endeavor, so i know our team will be covered in prayer and lifted up daily, which is such a comfort, i can't even tell you.

sounds like i'm in pretty good shape, right? i'd like to think so. i'd like to think that this will be 11 days out of my life i will look back on and be so grateful for, knowing i was able to see and do things i never thought i would in a land completely out of my comfort zone, and then return home and go on about my life, tucking those memories away and pulling them out on rainy days when i need perspective on this/that.

but then i remember the way i felt the first time (and every time since) i watched this:

#35 and #36 of 100 from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

about a month ago matt carter preached on the importance of "going." it was a short sermon that focussed on the great commission and Jesus calling us his witnesses, responsible for going out into the world and making disciples. he painted a picture of Jesus conquering death and appearing to the disciples and the thought process those men must have gone through. they had been by His side constantly for three whole years... seeing all the crazy things they saw... listening to Him talk about death and life and heaven and hell and the Father and the Holy Spirit and i'm sure more than once they thought to themselves: "that's coconuts!" but the second He appeared to them, after they had all watched Him die the way that He did... it. all. clicked. everything He had said was true. it all made complete sense. and the last thing Jesus told them was to go... and so they went. what other response could they possibly give? matt said it all boils down to two questions: is He who He says He is? and if so, is He worthy of my everything? then he played the #35 and #36 video.

[that was a quick paraphrase of matt's sermon... you should really, really podcast it... austin stone audio sermon from october 3, 2010.]

as much as i'd like to think i'll go to rwanda and come back and be the same cankle i was before, i fully realize that will hardly be the case. this is much more than a mission trip. it's time for me to go. and i can't wait.

oh no i di'int

much like the elusive white rhino of south africa, i have had an un-gettable get in my life for the past several years. and by that i mean a local celebrity sighting that has yet to be seen. oh sure... we've all been exercising at town lake and passed jake gyllenhaal a time or two... or bumped into matt mcconaughey downtown and wondered how in the world they make him look so tall in the movies. my friend babs hangs with some friday night lights cast member every other night it seems like. and these have made for great stories, water cooler talk, blahblahblah, but in all my comings and goings and stalkings, i have STILL never seen the one shining star of a lady that has mentored and guided me through my post-college adult life like no other.

i'm very clearly talking about kristin "kiki" armstrong. (keeks for short.)

if you aren't familiar, i encourage you to click on the right side of this page where it says "mile markers" and you can write me a thank you note later. i religiously read her runner's world blog before i could even huff around the block. it focuses on running, yes, but it's also about so much more. i promise you her words have gotten me through dozens of days at dead end jobs... hurt feelings... sheer dread at the thought of putting on running shoes... as well as any kind of thought that has entered my head of life having to be a certain way for it to be fulfilling and full of joy. wow. didn't really think i was going to get this deep with this, but it. is. so. true.

go read her blog. go get her books, devos, anything you can get your hands on. here is an article she wrote for glamour, um, four years ago... weird that i still remember some of it verbatim? let's go with no. and you better believe she was on oprah almost immediately after this article was published. the girl knows what she's talking about. not to mention she has a pretty amazing faith and that was on display this weekend when i...

turned a quick corner and almost flattened her in the starbucks parking lot.

it all happened so fast. petikei and i were in a hurry to get to church (but of course there's always time for venti iced black teas) and the parking lot is so cramped and i was turning wide to get into a tight spot and ERRRRRRRRRK. i slammed on my brakes and waved "ohiamsosorry" at this tiny, toned, precious looking lady, carrying a drink carrier full of beverages to her car as she gave me a somewhat stern look (she probably should've given me the finger, but she didn't and well, that's just the type of person she is!) and walked/glided in front of us and got into her car and handed out the drinks to her kiddies- all dressed in their sunday best.

a literal hush fell upon my car as we just watched her and finally said... um... that was kiki. i almost just ran over kiki. should we go talk to her and say sorry in person? should we go tell her how much she means to us? where do you think they are going to church? can you see the twins? she is so pretty! what does that bumper sticker mean on her car? do you think she knows how sorry i am for not paying more attention? can she see us staring?

we waited for them to pull off and then immediately made plans to get to starbucks 5 minutes earlier next week because can you IMAGINE if we would've just been FIVE MINUTES earlier?! but this is good... now we can be prepared. hope she's a hugger.

so as you can see i have finally spotted my unicorn, but i sure do wish it would have been under different circumstances. i like to think she felt the connection between us but had to get to the kids, otherwise we would probably still be at that starbucks, discussing life and love and SB (santa barbara... the bumper sticker).

It's the catch-22 of being a grownup, simultaneously wanting certain things but being scared to death of them at the same time. We have to own whatever is our thing in "orange shorts" and realize that until we are brave enough to acknowledge the desire (for love, for friendship, for a promotion, for a chance at adventure, for a shot at pursuing our dream) we will never, ever have the opportunity to see it blossom in our life. - from the "orange shorts" blog post... one of my faves.

current song on repeat

i can't stop listening to this robbie seay band song right now. isn't it just so true?

baby, it is a new day......

i'm really good at raising & saving $

in june i decided to sign up for something i have wanted to be apart of for a very long time... i signed the dotted line to go to rwanda for an 11-day mission trip in november. don't even get me started about the details and what all we'll be doing and seeing and experiencing. anytime i talk about it for more than a couple minutes it becomes increasingly harder to resist driving to the airport and leaving right this very second, so let's just leave it as i signed up, which gave me five months (uh oh, hello, five months! five months... not much) to raise some funds and all of a sudden i had penny pinching on the brain.

so naturally when i heard a radio commercial asking for paid volunteers to get their wisdom teeth out in exchange for a willingness to have experimental drugs tested on them following the procedure, i could not think of one reason not to call and make an appointment to go in and see if i was a match and possibly earn some extra cash for my trip.

very long and painful story short: i was a match. had the surgery at 7am on a friday morning. it took an hour. was supposed to take 20 minutes. the doctor had shortness of breath and beads of sweat dripping down the sides of his face while trying to push my two left-sided wisdom teeth out. an actual hammer was used on my stubborn upper tooth too many times to count. (this is when my crying started and the nurse caressed my legs, whispering it would be over soon.) got out of surgery and was given the placebo. cried some more. had to wait two hours to receive any sort of pain relief. got a vicodin at long last. went to my recliner and slept pain-free, but had to be there 4 more hours so they could measure my pain once an hour, every hour.

4:15pm finally came and my mom and sister's smiles and waves from the waiting room quickly turned into panic as they saw me, expressionless, limping towards them like a wounded soldier returning from the trenches. THANK YOU LORD FOR MY MOM AND SISTER. they rescued me and took me to the couch and nursed me back to a semblance of health in my darkest hour.

this is me two days after the surgery:

someone told me it didn't look like there was anything wrong with my face in this picture and i would like to slap that person. do they always think i resemble a chubby bunny?! maybe it's hard to tell, but i could not move any part of my lower face at this point. even though i only had the 2 lefties extracted, my right side was swollen as well from being pushed open so wide. i mean, i guess i'm not going to beg for pity here, but i feel like it should be given regardless.

it has now been four weeks and the pain has finally subsided and my swelling is no longer an issue. still hurts when i chew gum. and i just started flossing "back there" again. clearly the battle scars are still fresh. but you better believe i got that $225 check and deposited it directly into my africa fund like nobody's business. (ps i originally thought it was double that amount but didn't read the fine print. shoot.)

bet you thought that was the extent of my fund-raising projects, huh? nope.

the second brilliant idea came to me as i was budgeting on mint.com and realized i spend an embarrassingly large amount on my head of hair. embarrassing. i'm not sure when i decided i was really rich and it didn't matter how much i paid to get my hair trimmed and colored multiple times a year, but i saw the numbers for myself and wanted to throw up a little bit. so clearly this means i need to start coloring it myself! (and by that i mean my sister needs to start coloring it for me.) you do know there are aisles and aisles of $10 boxes of hair color in every grocery store, drugstore, big box store you frequent, right? genius.

of course, before all is said and done, yaya gets in on it, does the homework and finds out all the tricks of the trade, has all the girls over, makes a scrumptious dinner, and ends up pulling my ratty hair through a color cap for a couple hours on a thursday night. here is me towards the end of the "drying process" when i realize my hair is 10 shades lighter than i thought it would be:

it ended up totally working and i was really happy with it. big thanks to yaya for making it happen... as well as to my mother, sister, both abbys, maddie and blake for the moral support. i needed it. jury's out as to what we're going to do when the fall months are upon us and beach blonde barbie needs a root touch-up... but let's just burn that bridge when we get there.

cheers to me for stepping out and trying new things! except for i will never cheers myself for getting those #$%& wisdom teeth out execution-style. mistake. but you live you learn.

sawah's summer so far (hipstamatic style)

hill country sunrises...

princess pops...

backyard hammock time...

hippos 'n ducks...

strawberry-rhubarb cobbler made just for me by my papa...

trying to capture life in photos is hard for me to remember to do! if only i had pictures of jennytorrey, petikei & i straddled on a jetski, watching the sun go down in the middle of the lake & jen pondering aloud how weird space must be... or of johnny noodlelegs... or of the face mp makes at the auto towel dispenser every time i see her & get to "ree-rah tee-tee potty"... or of my face when i got a call today from premiere research saying they do in fact want to take my wisdom teeth out for compensation. these are the times i wish i thought to grab my camera (slash phone slash hipstamatic app) & capture it to share with all my obsessive blog followers. all five of you. but, like i told my mom when she was insisting i post pictures on facebook of my dad wearing his father's day present... some memories are just for us. i love those kind. those that pop into your head out of no where when you're on the highway, or in the grocery store line, or drifting off to sleep at night. where you think of it and laugh out loud, alone, like a complete goober.

summer's already halfway over. whether it's DSLR, smart phone, disposable film, or mental... hope you're out there snapping some memories.

hbd, daddy yum yum

well that sounds delicious

this has been in my head all day. puck is hot.

now you've got me thinking about my favorite tv moment of the 2009-2010 season. to which there is only one choice.

with this being a close second...

a little inspiration?

may was not a fitness month for me to be proud of. for one thing... glee was on. we also had lots of late-day rain. then i had a bout with scarlet fever. then i had a house guest that wouldn't leave. then it was june and i decided to get back up on the horse and start running like a champ again... how else will i continue to have an A+ blood pressure reading?

so for the last two weeks, my running routine has been in full effect and for the first time in recent memory, a very strange feeling has come over me. instead of dreading the sweaty suffocation around my neighborhood, i've actually been looking forward to it. dare i say i even missed it during the weeks i took off? as i was trying to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, i realized that my excitement over running was in direct correlation to my mounting itunes charges. coincidence?

my final scientific conclusion: if i have a playlist to look forward to, it doesn't matter what i'm actually doing while i listen to it. SO. in an effort to pass along this new piece of glorious motivation to all of my millions of followers, here is a list of some of the songs that are currently getting me all hyped up... some are old, some new, some more for sprinting intervals, some for your cool down. (p.s. i do not do sprint intervals. why do i even write stuff like that?)

i also just came across this picture that i will be adding to my vision board as soon as i get myself one. let's all go run in central park soon, kay?

editor's note: i misspelled phoenix in the song list. daaaaaang it. it's too hard for me to fix now, so we are all just going to have to find away to get over it. also- add to list- skyline (court yard hounds). the entire album is so very good and now that i think about it, just go ahead and add the whole thing to your portable musical player.

ode to jmm

the only person who will be more excited than my mother when i find my permanent roommate is my brother.

4:30 on an intensely hot austin, texas afternoon and what else would happen but that i would have a blow out in the middle of the highway? enter josh. i kept begging him to let me put my yoga mat down so he wouldn't have to lay on the sizzling asphalt, but he declined.

thanks, brother, for being my knight in shining armor when disaster strikes! thanks also to petikei for the initial pick up... what would i do without you two? probably still be on hold with roadside assistance.

may music review

what a week for the music lovers at c & p.

the court yard hounds finally released their brand new debut album on itunes yesterday...

lee dewyze KICKED IT on american idol, definitely perfecting his wheelhouse by performing a stellar rendition of "that's life" with his twinkie twin of a mentor, harry connick, junior (p.s. am i the only one who thinks hcj would make such a great judge next year and would help to ease the pain of that weird little hairy-chested sinatra lover at the end of the table being gone?!)...

and kind of along the same lines... how many of you know and have missed 'ol ryan cabrera? surely you remember the 2004 hit "on the way down"?? it's been a long six years of obscurity, but ryan is back on the radar and our televisions every tuesday night, as he is currently dating audrina patridge. this might not matter to you personally, but i know someone who is going to be veeeery happy to know his hair mentor is back for another 15 seconds.

moving on...

1919 W 40th's fave song so far this year "40 Dogs" by bobby schneider now has a music video! directed by robert rodriguez, the video was called "a love song to austin" by the austinist. i think it's just sweet as pie and can't get enough. it is not so sweet, however, that i can't embed it into this post, but if you click here you can watch it as many times as your little austin, texas-loving heart desires.

also, apparently no one can post on my blog anymore. i do not know how to fix this. but i'll sleep well at night knowing all the tens of tens of you readers would be commenting ninjas if it were possible. no hurt feelings here.

boring

my sister sweetly informed me today that i need to blog because c&p is officially boring. when i told her i don't have anything to blog about right now, she said that usually didn't stop me and i'll use the direct quote from her: "remember the post about vitamin water?"

that was rude, z. that was rude.

so i will go ahead and blog today. i have a very important subject that poses a question that i would like feedback on:

the friday night lights situation.

i love friday night lights as much as my first born that has yet to be born. coach eric taylor and timothy riggins are two of the greatest characters to ever be portrayed and not only do i believe them to be real life people, but i also have this weird thought in the back of my head that i am meant to some day move to dillon and go to their football games and have bbq's with them on the weekends.

and of course i don't have direct tv, therefore have been forced to wait an entire year for this new season to start. sad, yes, but i've dealt with it and have been preparing for may 7th, where it will once again begin and i'll stay home to watch it real-time by myself on friday nights and then patiently/excruciatingly wait seven days until the next installment. it was the plan and i was sticking to it.

well leave it to teve to work his google magic and get himself the BOOTLEG VERSION OF THE ENTIRE SEASON FOUR. that's right. he has the whole stinking season on dvd... good quality with no commercials.

so here is the question: do i ignore this new acquisition and go ahead and watch it as previously arranged in my head? or do i bite the bullet and watch the whole season at one time, staying up extra late every night for who knows how long, like a crack addict that can't stop?

there are pros/cons for each argument, but i just can't make up my mind on the right decision for me. another factor is that i'm making the trek to sugarland next weekend and watching these forbidden dvds would be the perfect post-blakey bedtime activity. and also, griff and abby are probably the only two people i would publicly weep in front of... due to a tv show. so there's that.

what do you think? what would you do? be honest.

ps: z, hope you're happy with this post. you'd better at least comment.

black kids come to town

you likey our new blog design? me, too.

let it be known that i do not understand st. patrick's day. furthermore, green washes me out. so this is not a blog about the "holiday" going on, but just to show you this video that i can't stop watching and or laughing over. poor tripp. he is going to want to off us one day.

Friday / Funko / Foprah

the waiting is over. it has arrived. i thought it was just an urban myth, or some mean joke the american idol judges were playing on us with the "vitamin water zero" cups they used during auditions. could it be true that vitamin water is going to come out with a zero-calorie drink sweetened with none other than TRUVIA?!?!

for weeks i have been scouring the shelves at the grocery store, even asking a manager at randall's the other day when on earth i could expect it... he had not a clue what i was referring to. but isn't the saying so true: "you'll find it when you least expect it"? checking out and zoning out at target last night, i look to my right and there it was. so i drank it today and must say VITAMIN WATER ZERO is good! i have absolutely no idea what it does for you or what vitamin concoction is surged into this water, but it's something different and i am a solid supporter of anything with stevia in it. so, go get you some. if you need to know what it looks like, i placed it among my office decor today and took a photo just for you.

and guess what else. i played bunko for the first time last night and won a prize for rolling the most funkos! (don't even ask.) my prize was this really cute SUMMER SCARF from gap! look how happy i am about it:

this is what happens when you have too much alone time in the office. i'm pretty sure it's friday.

so i couldn't neglect to pass on a noteworthy quote from mama O herself. straight from the pages of march's O magazine... in the article "what i know for sure" by oprah winfrey:

"here we are in the spring of a brand new decade. i've heard so many people say they feel this will be their best year yet. i feel that way, too. there's something about 2010 that makes us hopeful. we sense an invitation to begin this next decade of the millennium with more conscious attention to our lives."

she goes onto say life is all about an energy exchange... clean out old shoes out of your closet... and eat foods that love you back. whatever. the most important thing to note is that oprah and i are like THIS when it comes to sensing the great things that are ahead for us this year. armed with our vitamin waters and summer scarfs this weekend... let's go make something happen.

much love!

sem

big news

i just realized i never told my massive amounts of blog followers about my momentous occasion last week. for starters, i finally figured out twitter. still don't fully know how to use the "RTs" and "#s" and "@s" but i know how to follow fun, famous, sometimes influential people and i am addicted. i don't ever want to miss one, single tweet! so that means i lay awake for about 45 minutes every night going through all these 140-character updates, and i gotta tell ya... i'm sleepin like a baby afterwards.

but this is not my momentous occasion.

the day i decided to put my thinking cap on and dive into the world of tweets, i of course went straight on over to find and follow donald miller. you might have heard me talk about him. or maybe you've heard me detail out our wedding ceremony. either way, i looked at his twitter page and you are never going to believe me when i tell you: HE WAS IN AUSTIN AT THAT VERY MOMENT. yes. yes, friends, he was. so after frantic calls to babs and z, getting them to explain to me how to contact him to tell him he was in my city and that it was destiny that we meet, i finally got a "direct message" to him and told him how much i adored him and... get ready... he... tweeted me back :)

You have a new direct message:

donmilleris: Thanks so much!

that's what he said. directly back to me. no one else. isn't that just the BEST?!

what? did you think we would actually end up meeting each other and talking into the night about stories, and being who God created us to be, and when should i move to portland? no, i had a date to watch idol at the lea's and he, well, apparently he had to go to san antonio to meet max lucado for dinner. (at least that was what his next tweet said.)

so, baby steps. do not awaken love until it pleases, right? november: first sighting with what can only be described as intense eye contact held for 20 seconds at a book signing. march: first direct tweet. who knows what could be next during 2012!!!

all that leads me to say that yesterday my dear, close, personal friend don (i like to call him don) miller tweeted that he was listening to matt wertz's new cd for free on aol.com. what good, little baylor girl doesn't love matt wertz?? (and COULD don and i have more similar musical tastes?!?!) i clicked on over and listened through mister wertz's new stuff for a little while, which made me re-fall in love with this sweet singer/songwriter all over again. took me right back to bagby and bear trails and dr.pepper hour! and then naturally i created a matt wertz station on pandora and have been jamming to it all day and one of my favorites of his has been playing and i thought i'd share it with you all because it is just so SPRINGY outside today and after a long, dreary winter straight from the pits below, this song makes me want to go peruse target for some new pool floats. so, enjoy. i would love to give you the link to listen to his new cd, but they have already taken it down. sorry, charlie. maybe you should join twitter. you would know a lot more than you do now.

p.s. is that little lucas boto in some of the polaroid pictures?!?!? what in the what??

annie are you ok?

many awards will be given out this sunday night. some deserved, some maybe not, but one thing is for sure... if i sat on the board of whatever movie makers of america society guild of all cinema, or whoever decides the oscars, my vote for every category would be the same:

have ya'll seen this?! i spent the weekend in dallas with jenny torrey, where she happens to have a movie room and i could think of no better movie to take full advantage of that huge screen and surround sound. for all wondering... yes- wacko jacko literally orbited around another planet full of jellybeans and tickle monsters. yes- his nose will freak you out the entire time. and no- we couldn't decide if he was creepier with or without his sunglasses on when he was out and about. but put all that aside and trust me... it was one of the most entertaining two hours of my life. honestly and truly. redbox it tonight!

and i couldn't not post this little nugget of tripp singing his new favorite song that is apparently played in the car on repeat. i taped it with jen's phone after we picked him up from school on friday. oh and when we got to his classroom, the teacher told us he had been telling everyone all day that his aunt say was coming to visit!! muffin! thanks for a fun (and slightly exhausting) weekend, jen... had so much fun with you and the kiddies!!!!

peace + love = me

look who i got to spend v-day with :) :) :) :)

blakey girl is such a giggle box!!!

i love valentine's day. i love it because there are chocolate covered strawberries as far as the eye can see and buying a 4-pack to eat in the car on the way home from h-e-b isn't weird on that one, special day. and i love it because it is a reminder at how much love is around me. it doesn't have to be some cliche, red roses, only romantic couples need apply event. i went to sleep last night being overwhelmingly grateful because i know what love is. i feel it and see it every day. in my friends whose voluntary presence in my life humbles me and makes me who i am. and in my parents who show me what unconditional love means and what it does when it supports you in ways nothing else can. and in my brother and sister and new sister who know who i am at my very core and keep my feet on the ground with their love and friendship that is dearer to me than just about anything else. and in my church whose pastor just began a new sermon series on BIBLICAL MANHOOD that i'm pretty sure every man (especially single, from the ages of 25-35) needs to go ahead and d-load. i've provided the link right here just in case you wanted to go ahead and start listening now.

so here is to the hope of MORE LOVE from now to the next february 14th. MUAH!

guess i'll go on living afterall...

NBC SET TO AIR "FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS" in April

By WSJ Staff

Everett Collection

“Friday Night Lights” fans, rejoice.

The critically-acclaimed but low-rated sports drama currently airing on DirecTV will make its return to NBC on April 30 a couple months ahead of schedule. Originally slated to air on NBC during the summer, the show — which stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton and is based on the 2004 movie (itself based on a 1990 non-fiction book by Buzz Bissinger) — is currently in its fourth season.

The move was announced today, as NBC revealed its post-Winter Olympics line-up. Since the network announced it was canceling the ill-fated “Jay Leno Show,” sideliners have wondered how they would fill the additional five hours of primetime programming.

The solution? Pretty much as critics had predicted, with “Law & Order” episodes all over the new schedule. Plus, new drama “Parenthood,” which is based on the Ron Howard movie, will premiere at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 2, following “The Biggest Loser” and Jerry Seinfeld’s reality show “The Marriage Ref” will premiere at 10 p.m on Thursday, March 4.

NBC’s new line-up, as seen below, begins March 1.

top ten

here are the top ten reasons why i should not, for any reason, run long distances or races of any kind:

10. i have heavy bones. not easy to carry around for miles on end.
9. the idea of a "runner's high" is completely lost on me. i have, however, experienced several water break highs and walking break highs.
8. these things typically start before the sun comes up.
7. i find gu disgusting. just seeing used packages laying on the ground makes my gag reflex set in.
6. the "optimal" running gear involves a LOT of spandex. no thanks.
5. hills make me break out.
4. there is a greater than 50% chance of my toenails turning black and falling off due to the constant pavement pounding.
3. summers are too hot; winters too cold.
2. i never know which side of the road is the correct side to be on and am so over "elite runners" snubbing my ignorance.

1. runner's trots. need i say more?

and the one and only reason i will continue to run and sign up for these events that push me physically, mentally, spiritually and in every other way possible...

let me just tell you... i love these crazy liz-adies. never ever ever ever would i ever think i would want to be apart of a freaking athleticly-based anything, but here i am, two halfsies in, and it is ALL because of them.

i love the fact that we HAVE to train and there's no way we're doing it alone, so we keep each other accountable, adjust schedules as needed, and make the time. we therefore find ourselves with hours on end to catch up and untangle the webs our lives get into simply by running and talking it out. training with these precious friends of mine makes me better. period paragraph.

so after an hour delay... wind... sweat... up hills, down hills... bright spots of PETIKEI and others waving along the route... a little tik tok and a lot of serious prayer... we ALL crossed that finish line on sunday morning. we did it and we did it together.

there were definitely some times over the past three months that i would have rather watched the food network from 9am saturday to 9pm sunday and skipped a few of those dreadful, never-ending town lake expeditions. or skip a run after work because i wanted to go to happy hour without being a sweaty, hot mess. or told the girls, "you go ahead and do it this time; i'll just be the loudest cheerleader for you at the finish line!" it would have been really easy to do that.

but i just flat would have missed out.

donald miller wrote a book last year called "a million miles in a thousand years." i would be shocked if i haven't mentioned it before now, because this book has changed how i view every aspect of my life. the book essentially tells us that our lives are supposed to look like movies that we'd like to sit down and watch, not a boring, monotonous, anti-climatic, waste of time. one of his major bullet points is to purposefully create "inciting incidences" to make your story what God designed it to be. he says "...humans naturally seek comfort and stability. without an inciting incident that disrupts their comfort, they won't enter into a story. they have to get fired from their job or be forced to sign up for a marathon. a ring has to be purchased. a home has to be sold. the character has to jump into the story, into the discomfort and the fear, otherwise the story will never happen."

the word picture of our lives being a series of stories, woven together with ups and downs and memorable situations and people we'd never know or places we'd never go if we hadn't been intentional in making sure we pushed ourselves gets me all kinds of warm and mushy inside.

so, in conclusion: i had a great 3M halfsie with my girls and can't wait to do it again next year. oh and i hate this but two of us didn't make the picture above and that would be amy "powerhouse" chapman and little kitchen! how we didn't get a full group pic, i'll never know. i also just came across this quote from the book that you must get (like now) and it was one of my favorites:

"if i have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, enjoy your place in my story. the beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as i have created you."

preach it, donald. xoxo, sem