Blog Challenge Day One:

 Recent picture of me and 5 random facts:

1. As you can tell from the picture above, ice cream is a passion of mine. The only other food obsession that comes close to ice cream would be coffee.

2. I cry when I am alone and I get to thinking about my life. I am so content and feel so lucky.

3. I am the oldest of 3 girls in my family.

4. Every time I see my husband, I think he is just as cute as the day I first saw him :-)

5. I talk to my dogs frequently, and I often do it in baby talk.

A friend of mine from school and her daughter really love running. As you know, I can get caught up in the excitement of an idea, and sometimes get in over my head. I signed up for a 5k, which isn't that out of the ordinary for me as I usually do 3 or 4 each year. The difference is that I did not train for this one. My mom and my sister (who are both runners) came up to run the race too. Here is a picture of us at my house before we went:

A combination of not training and wearing gel inserts in my sneakers caused an injury.  This is why I don't exercise:

The good news is that, in spite of the pain, I finished the race in 37 minutes and 30 seconds. Not my best time for sure, but I am glad it is over. Now I am sitting here with 2 pained feet, but also a feeling of success.  I am signed up to run another one on Thanksgiving morning, but I am not sure I will do it. Dave and I are doing the 2 mile walk before the 5k, so I may just do that and cheer my family on from the sidelines.

Fall Festive

Fall is my favorite season, and it always has been. While I like warm weather, there is nothing better than needing a sweater for your walk and hearing the leaves crunch beneath your feet.

I pulled out our fall table cloth:

I also spent last Sunday cooking! I made a beef stew, gluten-free macaroni and cheese, and pumpkin cookies all while enjoying a glass of wine.

For the love of dogs

I have heard the story many times...as a young child, I was terrified of dogs. Mom and I were taking a walk around the block, and out of nowhere, a dog appeared.  He barked, I hid behind Mom and cried. I was so afraid. I would go in the house when I saw one coming. The sight of a dog, even a friendly one, caused meltdowns of epic proportions.  I am not really sure why I was so afraid, and I do not really know what caused me to change my mind, but now I love dogs more than almost anything else.

Growing up, I always had stuffed animal dogs. I would cuddle them and wish that they were real. I would beg for a dog, but the answer was always NO. One time, a stray Golden Retriever crossed my path! I was so happy. I put a jump rope leash on him and named him Dude. We had the BEST day together, walking and playing. Unfortunately, Dude already had a family. My parents located his family and home he went. My neighbor Lynn had a Rotweiler mix named Bear, and I loved to walk him. He was too big for me, and would pull so much that I fell a time or ten. I walked him religiously for as long as I was allowed. Nani would always worry because even though Bear was nice, he was HUGE!

My chance for a dog of my very own happened during my junior year of college. My boyfriend at the time and I thought it would be a good idea to get a dog. WARNING, what you are about to read is bad, and I am ashamed of this paragraph END WARNING. We went to the pet store and chose this cute little pup. We named her Abbie and we maxed out our credit cards to buy her. While she was cute, she was not very friendly. In her defense, we never trained her and she lived most of her life in a crate. After said boyfriend and I split up and I graduated from college, I moved home with Abbie. Things continued to go downhill as my parents did not want an untrained maniac dog. I decided to give her to a rescue agency. It was the best thing I could have done for her. I was in no place, emotionally or financially, to be a dog owner. Abbie is one of the biggest regrets of my life. I hope she went on to have a happier life with a family.

To Be Continued...

Getting Organized

After a recent stay at my sister and brother-in-law's condo, Dave and I had to hang our heads in shame. Their place was SO neat and tidy! We decided to turn our embarrassment into action this weekend!  We targeted a few areas that are especially annoying:
1. Our shoes
2. My purses/totes/etc.
3. The mail and magazines

I spent about an hour organizing my closet. My dad installed the shelves in our closet for us, and he is about 6 feet tall. I always struggled to keep my closet neat in part because I couldn't reach the shelves very well.  Step One was lowering the shelves to a reasonable level for my height. What a difference! Not only can I better see my clothes, but I can use the top shelf for all of my shoes! Brilliant! I also purchased a tote for the bags that I am not using, and it slides nicely under my clothing rack.

Exhibit A:

Dave and I also have been toying with the idea of changing some parts of our bedroom. Lighting is a HUGE issue in there. We have a ceiling fan/light, but it is virtually useless in the light department. We set out today to find new lamps, and also found a new bedding set! Target is awesome! The bedding set was $89 and the lamps were $30 each.

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

Close up of new lamps:

Ebay Gifts!

My youngest sister Amanda came up woith a very thoughtful birthday gift for me this year: an Ebay gift card!  I purchased 2 paits of shoes! Love them! The first pair is from my absolute favorite shoe store--Aldo. I am not sure why or how my love for all shoes Aldo began, but they are #1 in my book! The second pair is Steve Madden. Unfortunately, they are a bit snug so I may only wear them for a short stint. Dave is not a fan of the cheetah print, but I love them!

All's Quiet on the Baby Front

Well, it has been a while since I've done a baby post so here goes. There is nothing to report.  We have not been shown in approximately one month, which is disheartening. Every day I check the mail for the post card from our agency, and every day it is not there. I know that when an expectant mom checks us out online, we do not know, but I like getting the card. Somehow it gives me hope. While the 12ish cards we have received all turned out to be nothing, at least we know that our profile is out there, ya know?

I talked with my friend April, and she has not been shown in 8 months. I know that compared to that, one month is nothing. One bright spot is that Dave and I have been so very busy lately that we are not noticing how much time is passing. I could not believe that October 1st marked 7 months of waiting. We will need to update our home study in December, and I just can't believe it has been this long already. I must admit, in the day to day, it doesn't feel like that much time has passed. When I drive to work, I daydream about what it will be like. Dave and I got laughing tonight about how we would handle our child as a teenager. Luckily, we have plenty of time to figure that out! And until then...

"All human wisdom is summed up in two words--wait and hope." ~Alexandre Dumas Pere

Odd Gal Out

So I will risk sounding like a total freak, but I must dedicate a blog post to rain. I love rain. Let me preface this post by saying that I am not especially outdoorsy, and I do not mind staying in. I love to hear the rain when I wake in the middle of the night. My Pop actually asks Nan to wake him if it is raining so that he can enjoy the calming sound. I prefer to set my sound machine to rain, but Dave says it confuses him since he can't tell if the rain is real or not. I feel like rainy weather gives me an reason to stay in my house and get things done. Sometimes that means chores, but more often than not it means reading or snuggling. I feel like sometimes the rain forces me to stop the madness that is me and relax. Rain is Mother Nature's way of saying, "take a break!"

It's Love

The Kindle and I have been getting to know one another over the last few days, and I am in love. The best part is that there will be many more books read now that I have one!  I found this adoarble cover for it so it will stay safe in my bags. How cute!