Seriously? October 11th? Apparently no one's minded the hiatus...sorry about that if you did!

I haven't stopped running. That happens on Sunday, hopefully around 10:30ish...

Oh, to sum up the last 2 months...well, lots of running, much of it going much better than expected. That would include the dreaded 20 mile run, where Coach Dave had us running along the Mississippi River Road down into Hidden Falls (lived not 10 miles from there all my life and never knew about it? Guess that's why they're Hidden Falls?) we saw 2 deer (good eyes Kathy), ran around my old neighborhood in St. Paul, where I realized that it's really hilly over there (you don't notice much when you're in a car). We missed all but one of the 8 waterstops, but luckily my mom was home and she was the hero of the day with vitamin water and advil...right before that we had hit the low point in the morning, 15 miles down, lots of pain, some cussing, etc. But then the Advil kicked in I guess, because it got a lot easier not too long after that. (You'd better believe that Advil will be making an appearance in Honolulu this weekend)

Other than that? work is insane!! Right after I had finished training I was so bored I could hardly handle it, and now? Ummm, yeah, I don't need anything extra for awhile. I'm taking it as a good thing because it means that whoever is in a position above me thinks I'm doing a good enough job to keep piling stuff on...and I'm pretty sure that I'm still figuring out the learning curve and once that's all set, I should be just fine, and then maybe have time to take lunches and keep up on emails and blogs and things. In the meantime, the three people that check my blog will just have to wonder if I'm ever coming back again.

mmm, there's more happening, but I can't think of it, of course. We're leaving tomorrow for Hawaii (the rest of the team left this morning, but Seth didn't have enough vacation time) It's a direct flight, any ideas on what I can do for 8 hours on a plane?

Oh yeah, guess what happened last night? Well, not really last night, it actually started last weekend. Saturday I was being a good wife and doing the laundry while Seth went to go meet with guys for the childcare ministry. I heard the washing machine fill and start agitating, and didn't think about it much, but it seemed pretty quiet not too long after that. I looked in on it when it should have been done only to find a tub full of water and not cleaned clothes, and a washer that wouldn't respond to anything I tried. Checking the fuses, the knobs, etc. Nothing worked! So I called our nearby neighbors, who wouldn't answer their phones (thanks guys) and finally got ahold of my mom who let me track my wet clothes in the snow over to her house to spend as much time as I could doing laundry until we had to go to my office Holiday party that night. My mom was the hero yet again because not only did she finish my laundry, but she folded it up and everything! We picked it up on Sunday afternoon, and I have smelled like my mom all week long. It's a little weird.

Well, after having the repair guy cancel on me because it was snowing yet again on Tuesday night, he came out on Wednesday and promptly figured out my problem. the outlet that the washer was plugged into had broken the circuit (it has one of those Test/Reset buttons on it) and it just had to be reset. Doh. Thanks, here's $49 for making me feel kinda dumb.

But since he was there I had him look at things a little more closely because it's been making this awful squeak whenever it starts up and it leaks from the bottom (I knew it wasn't good, I just didn't know HOW not good that is) apparently the seal in the tub was bad, which caused the leak, and it pretty much rusted the whole transmission. This was what caused the squeaking, AND also caused it not to actually spin, which was why my clothes seemed to never be very spun out and always sopping wet right from the washer...Yeah. It's also what caused the circuit to break from it being overloaded, so I did the right thing by checking the fuses, but didn't think that the actual outlet would have done the trick...

So it was just cheaper to buy a new one, which is what I told Seth when I called him. He was at the MOA hanging out with a friend, who was kind enough to let appliance shopping at Sears serve for the evening's entertainment. (you're the best, Ryan!) So within about 2 hours I went from having a washer that doesn't wash (we're gonna try it again tonight, tho!) to having a new washer delivered on Tuesday when we get back from Hawaii.

And that's how Seth and I decided what to get for each other for Christmas....actually, we haven't, but between that and a trip to Hawaii...I can't think of much more that I need!

Anyway, back to Hawaii...Kathy forwarded me an email this week from a mutual friend who had sent out a list of time slots for when we'll be running to have our friends sign up and pray for us during the marathon! How unbelievably humbling and encouraging and wonderful and touching. I've been a little overwhelmed by how supportive people have been, so many think this is just an amazing thing to even attempt (I suppose I'm one of them) I'm still not quite sure how it will go, but I'm really excited to try it. We'll get sent off with fireworks, how cool is that??! And we're running along the ocean, and it'll be warm with no snow in sight. I'm telling you, it can't be beat.

On the not-so-fun side of the marathon, I haven't made my fundraising goal. I'm a bit farther back than Kathy, with just over $1700 left. If you need any Christmas pies, I think I'll be doing a fundraiser with Bakers Square, along with working at the Metrodome and anything else I can think of. There's still time to donate, and my donation website is still up if you're thinking of it. I've got until January 9th, and I plan on continuing to work for it.

Well, it's not exactly 2 months worth of news, but it'll do.

Oh yeah! There was a pageant in there too. It made news across the country, and even internationally, I believe...

I'm still not too bright about embedding Youtube videos, but here's a link and another one