Monday, May 16, 2011

Chickens, buttons and plants...oh my!


A few of the things that have transpired in the last couple of weekends....

1.) We expanded the chicken coop into a chicken mansion!  It is not real pretty right now, but soon it will be all painted up and a nice place for the chickens to call home. 

2.) The garden is growing!  My peas are sprouting, and carrots are planted.  I bought some new heirloom tomatoes, some basil, cucumber and pumpkin plants from our local food shelter's garden sale!  I am excited for a great harvest this year!

Peas are growing....

Lettuce, arugula, dill, flowers and spinach....

3.) Vintage button fun!  I took a Saturday trip around several wonderful antique shops in our neighboring city with a friend and found these great buttons in a jar there.  Who knows if they are truly vintage, but for $6, who could pass up these beauties?


And I used one of my favorites in the jar to make the pendant for my new necklace....


This coming weekend I am looking forward to enjoying a day outside for our yard sale and doing some more work in the yard and finally doing some sewing!

Have a wonderful week!

Ash






Sunday, May 8, 2011

26.2 miles...what could go wrong?

Well, I did it!  Last weekend, my friend and I finished our very first marathon!  26.2 miles.  It was so hard, and so wonderful at the same time!

The day before we went to the expo and bought some great new shirts to run in.  Mine said, "26.2 Miles....what could go wrong?" and on the back it listed all the things that could go go wrong.  My friend's said. "26.2 miles cuz I am full of crazy!"  I had to get that sticker, as well.

The day of the race was beautiful! They had registered about 8,000 runners for the half and full marathon that day!  Energy was super high!



We ran without walking at all for the first 20 miles!  It was awesome!   That is basically where we hit the wall.  Luckily we had peeps waiting with food right there.

The rest of the way was pretty tough.  We'd walk and run for the last 6, but right around 23 miles I did something to my foot.  It was pretty painful, but there was no way I was going to quit there!  I was able to run across the finish!



I made it to Hayward Field!  I promise this is me running...but lifting the legs very high at this point is basically impossible.  The legs (and my foot) are on fire!  But I made it!



Woohoo!  I could not look at the crowd, because I thought I'd cry!  I finished at 5 hours and 50 mins...that was about 13.24mins per mile.  I thought that was pretty darn good for our first time!

Here is our celebrating after pics....


We did it!  This is us "cheers-ing" our medals. :)


My hubby and I after the race.

So the bad news....you know how I said I hurt my foot?  Well here it was a few hours after the race...


And the next morn....


Needless to say, it was time for a trip to the doc.  3 hours later, I was told that I likely broke one of the small metacarpal bones in my foot.  Oops!  I got this awesome shoe to wear, though. :P


It is healing, but sadly I can't run for at least 2 weeks.  Bummer!  But it was totally worth it!

Take care and happy mothers day to all out there!

Ash