a trail race, vive la france & a church luncheon

my friend rachel and i did the heels & wheels 5K a few weeks ago. it was partly paved but mostly trail and it was HARD. you had to go up a mountain (steep hill), jump over a creek (that was fun) and run through a field or two. oh yeah, i saw a big snake and stopped for a few minutes to gawk (there was a crowd).

my race bib

rachel's first 5K - she basically crushed it

i liked the race, my first trail race but probably not my last. i have a running buddy that loves trail runs so maybe i will do a few more with her.

the race season is starting up! i am doing the run for the schools with a bunch of friends on saturday, it's great because we do the zoo with the kids afterwards. lottie is already very excited.

 click on the image to learn more or to sign up

and then my favorite race of last year will be on the 7th. it will be matt's first 5K (since we've been married, he did do a marathon about 10 years ago), so i am taking the kids in the jogging stroller. are we cute and active or WHAT? the race for the deaf is routed through the lovely island home neighborhood. it is so cute and quaint, i can't wait!

 click on the image to learn more or to sign up

last week lottie's school had a "book character" day - all of the kids had to dress like their favorite book character and they had a parade. it was cute. i tried to get lottie sue to be fancy nancy (those are her favorite books) but she wanted to be sleeping beauty. as you can see, she is kinda both. vincent was an elephant and looked so cute (good job, lisa!), i forget the book he likes so much.

lottie sue and vincent, bffs

here are a few shots of the parade...

that weekend it was our turn to host dinner group - we went french. matt and i love the french! vive la france!

here is the menu...

i know, yummers

here is the table, we thought it looked french

matt literally cooked for about eight hours that day, it was delicious. maybe the best meal he has ever made, and that is saying something because he is the best cook i know.

after dinner the nerf gun came out, much fun was had.

then somehow rick, amy and matt exercised. maybe it was to burn off some of the calories from dinner? rick is a HARD CORE athlete person, he was showing us some of the moves he can do in his sleep.

rick and amy feel the burn

this is matt after he did a move rick showed us,
he is smiling because he is happy it's over

then the next day our community group at church had a luncheon. lottie sue and rowdy had a great time, the food was plentiful as well.

and now i leave you with these items of interest...

• the 2011 pulitzer prize winners were announced...i have read (and loved) the book that won for fiction - a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan
• the times has a q&a with tina fey
• if you like "radiolab" (i do), then you can read about the hosts here
• go check out the atlantic's how genius works - get inside the minds of some of the most creative people
• here's a story on what you don't know about the muppets
• better safe than sorry: four ways you might be mishandling your cheese
• slate has a story on the politics of parks and recreation
• here is a story on lorne michaels

and oh yeah - we made homemade ravioli the other night with the smiths. it was so great, a labor of love...

mario would have liked it

and now i leave you for real with this photo of rowdy sleeping in the car. he's so cute.

 

 zzzzzzzzz

alrighty, this was a quick post. i have an Easter one in the works for you - it was a wonderful day and a full weekend. the carsons and gilmores were in town. yippee!

who fartlek'd?, butterfly gala-ing, lottie sue at ballet & driving

sunday was the covenant health knoxville marathon/half marathon/5K. it was a great morning! here is a list of all of the people i know that ran some type of race (listed in order of mileage)...

• megan did the full marathon!
• amy d., amy m., kelly j., lisa h. (finished 4th in her age group with a time of 1:56, her PR - yee haw!!!), shahin h., brittney f. and ashlee h. (finished at 1:37 - yeah, you heard me. goodNESS girl!) all did the half marathon!
• amy h. (finished 10th in her age group - yee haw again!!!), lisa b. (finished 3rd in her age group, her PR as well - and another yee haw!!!), lauren r. and moi did the 5K!

here i am with my home girls, amy h. and lisa b.

that is a lot of people and i am sure i left someone off (my apologies).

matt, amy and i made signs for the girls - i must say they are pretty awesome.

here we are creating beautiful art

 
amy and i finished up the signs friday night. matt drew the caricatures of the girls for us, i cannot draw to save my life but luckily i have a resident ar-teest at my disposal.

here's a close-up of them for you...

when i mentioned that they are the most awesome signs EVER, i really think that is true. i googled and googled for signs to see what others made, and none of them were cool like this. amy and i are way proud. we wrote on the back of them as well. messages that read...

• run now. brag later.
• you are my hero. 
• you're kind of a big deal...

then we made another big sign and it was my favorite, here is the front and back...

it's true, got a hand cramp

not me
(you may not know what this means, but if you do a half marathon
or a full one then you do - so click here to learn more)

everybody really loved the "i got up early" sign (and the fartlek one) one except for one guy. he was kinda mad about it and i chalk it up to him having a bad run and not understanding what sarcasm is...oh well.

one marathon runner actually stopped and took our picture with her phone. and lots of other runners smiled, laughed, gave thumbs up or thanked us for being there and giving support. they were on mile 11 AND going up a hill, but mustered a way to communicate.

tommy came down and met us as well and we saw our poster subjects run by at mile 11. i had so much fun yelling for the runners, i love it.

here are photos i stole off of facebook of our medal finishers...

amy d. and amy m. so very happy and proud

 amy with her sign (front)

 the back of amy's (she IS a big deal, really)

and while i am at it, here's a blurb from fleet feet's most recent newsletter. amy h. is famous!!!

amy running through times square

and i am glad to report that running and i are back together. we took a break over the holidays and we are just now getting reacquainted with each other. but i am signed up for two half marathons (chicago and disney) this fall so now i really have to do it. which is fine by me, i love it.

here is my race bib from sunday...

this 5K was the first one i did last year with a time of 47:24

(an improvement but 4 minutes off my PR (39 minutes) but that

was last fall at the height of my running) - i will get faster

i just now scanned this one it, this is the PR race - amy and i ran from her house to the race then BACK to her house. i think i did so well because i was warmed up. it always takes me a mile until i get into the groove.

 

the above-mentioned PR

and this is the bib from our knoxventure race, the one we did with the smiths that was SO MUCH FUN. here is a link to my blog post on the adventure if you are so incline but you can also check out megan's (hers is better)...

remember - we played smart, not dumb

last weekend we attended the butterfly gala with the gang and had a great time. everyone got dolled UP. kate commented that is was so nice not to be wearing sweatpants on a saturday night. word, i say.

if you don't know what the butterfly fund is, i took this from the website or you can click here to go directly there:

The families of Emily Barger and Maddie Harrill established the Butterfly Fund at the East Tennessee Foundation in memory of their daughters. Both of these beautiful little girls were diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of childhood cancer, in 2007. Sadly, both of these girls passed away just weeks apart during the summer of 2008.

The Butterfly Fund supports research, treatment and services dedicated to the defeat of childhood cancers. Here are the facts about childhood cancer and why the Butterfly Fund continues its work.

we really had a great time, it was a packed event! there was a silent auction and i went a little crazy. i was bidding all over the place and didn't even think about what would happen if i won all of them. matt brought up that very good point and i laid off a few. hee. anywho, here are some shots of the night.

the gang

and think photo CRACKS me up (sorry, jp but jo is the one that pointed it out).

hahahahahaha

blake and jojo

 the palmers with me photobombing (matt, that was for you)

how cute are we???

kate (love her dress) and rick

a proper shot of the palmers

 

a blurry shot of the hussars (oops, my bad) 

 

me and tabby

me and abby h.

russell b. and moi

then it got a little crazier...

jp rocking the butterfly collar

yes, jo is doing the water sprinkler dance move

her are a few photos of lottie sue in ballet last week.

warming up

lennox, chloe and a lottie sue

that's levitation, holmes

 front and center with miss abbey

ok, now to the random part of the post...

• i LOVE this dress. i want it badly. but it is $$$.$$.

you can buy it here

see how cute it is on a person? cute and presidential.

• my girl crush has a book out - i am 17 in line at the library to read it (here's another review)
• one of the funniest running bloggers has an article up on athleta (they have great active wear clothes) - this is her blog: shut up & run!
• here's a peek at will ferrell on the office
• if you are excited about the hunger games movie you can click here to see who was cast as gale and peeta
• here is a link to some unofficial smithsonian ads, but here is one of them

• get lost with 20 stunning maps of your favorite fictional sci-fi lands
• the times on white fish: broiled, sauteed, roasted and poached
• and speaking of food, this is a photo of matt's homemade salsa - it is to die for (soooo delicious)

yummers

i leave you with a few photos of the kids from friday night. we have one of those jeep things and will got in it then drove off like it was nothing. lottie sue doesn't know how to steer yet, really. will loved it and aside from one accident that involved matt pulling the jeep OFF of lottie, the night went well.

future pro-driver, will hussar

 minor accident into a bush

this is will driving backwards (he is good at it and that ain't no lie)

post playtime, we plopped them in front of dora while we ate

ok, that's all i have for now. enjoy your week!

peace,

jenny