Mitchell Karaoke Night

I'm staying after work tonight to meet Annaleise on campus for the Faculty & Staff Appreciation Dinner and I'm kind of bored.

In an effort to pass the time, I thought I'd post this video on YouTube of the two of us doing karaoke a couple years ago. The sound isn't very good, so you might want to turn up your volume.

I think it's classic... I hope you feel the same way.

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

We ran on relay teams this morning in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.


Me looking out the window at 5:27 AM, looking at the rain, and thinking really...this sounded like an OK idea at the time...


Of course Michael was his wonderful chipper self.


The signs showing us where to go


Michael leaving me at my relay station to drive to pick me up at the next relay station. Good thing I got that water resistant jacket because it was raining and freeeezing!!


Me crossing the finish of my relay leg. Although I only did a 5K, I had not been doing the training Michael had and did 13 minute miles- which is super slow. But I did not throw up or die, and I was able to finish (those were my goals, I tried to keep it simple!)


Michael high-fiving his teamates. Note John d. on the left, poised and ready to give pounds.


Us afterward squinting into the sun.

Although it was early and freezing, the being a part of the race was a great experience. In my leg of the race I saw a man wheeling himself in a wheel chair, watching him was so emotional for me I had to look away because I was about to start crying. Running up the hills was difficult enough for me and I can't imagine the strength it would take to do in a wheel chair. Throughout the race I was amazed by the strength I saw in people. Michael did awesome on his leg and I am "real proud" as Grandma Hartman would say!

Michael's addition to this post:

I'm disappointed to announce that the white, wicking running shirt I ran in today did not lend itself well to sweat bunnies or chickens. Oh well... maybe next time.

I am pleased to note that my relay team came in 17th out of 224 teams in our category (Coed-Open). Our team mile pace time was 8 minutes and 46 seconds and mine was 9 minutes and 16 seconds. It took me 57 minutes and 30 seconds (new personal best) to finish my 10K leg, which was the last leg of the race. Lest you think I'm bragging, In the picture above, the guy in all black that I'm high-fiving ran his 10K in 39 minutes (that's about a 6 minute 20 second pace)... STUD-MUFFIN!!!

In my opinion, the last leg was by far the best leg to run because 1) you get to cross the finish line and 2) people are cheering you on like you've been running the whole marathon, which is kind of fun.

Despite some moderate to severe (no bleeding) nip chaffing and a little bit of soreness in my inner thighs, I actually feel pretty good right now twelve hours after the run. Now that I've run two 10K's I will say that I definitely prefer running them in the afternoon versus the early morning. There's just something unholy about getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go running.

All in all, today was a good day. The Redbud was fun, but I really enjoyed today's experience of running with AM and all the other thousands of people that participated a lot more. I think we decided today that we will try to run a half-marathon this fall. Let us know if you'd like to join us. There's one in San Antonio in mid-November that might be fun.

Best part of the run? Someone handed me a Powerade and cheeseburger right after I finished running which I proceeded to devour completely in about 50 seconds. What a great post-run meal! If only I could run as fast as I eat.

festival of the...

We decided to be "crazy" and have a week night out last night. We went to the festival of the arts downtown with Heather and David. Really it was more a festival of food than art...

Us in the myriad gardens


the Roberts


Sisters


we saw a big turtle and a little one


heather with her bratwurst and my curly fries


The dessert heather and I shared: warm chocolate fudge cake- a chocolate cake with warm fudge in the middle, covered with caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, homemade whipped cream...Amazing!


A picture Michael took...not even sure what to caption this one...


Part of the city skyline...this one tiny angle is what I imagine it might look like looking out of central park...


we watched a brass pouring by some artists... (i felt about as disappointed as when I found out the penguin performers at the fair were not real penguins!)

We had a fun night out in our city! You should check it out!

weekend in review

We spent the weekend in Texas this past weekend...as I was uploading some pictures I realized what a poor job we did documenting our fun, so bear with me, we will have to work with what we've got...
We went down Friday night, got really dressed up and were taken out to a fabulous restaurant in Dallas (and took no pictures). We both had really great filets- and some of you will be proud to note that I restrained from asking for ketchup this time.

Saturday we went to IKEA... I had never been, and lets just say it was amazing and overwhelming. I will have to go back when I have more time.

Here I am looking at what I am sure is something fab in IKEA.


We went to IKEA because I saw they had finger puppets online, AND they were super cheap, AND I wanted to buy some because I have been borrowing them at work for some of my younger kid sessions from my friend Heather (who was my friend way before work), so now I have my own puppets!! (although none of them are the pretty princesses she has). I was super excited...Man that was a long explanation.


Then we went to Sprinkles cupcakes, because I have wanted to for a long time. I have a friend that raves about them, and Oprah does too.


Here is our selection, coconut, strawberry, and peanut butter chocolate chip, (and then a fake one to fill the box). They were delicious! I hope we can go back next time we go to Dallas-there were so many flavors to choose from!


Here is Michael sampling the coconut.
From here on we got ready for the North Texas Alumni Chapter Auction/Dinner, and went to several other events where we took no pictures.


On the way home Sunday night around 11 PM I noticed we took no pictures together, so we took this awesome one of us in the car by holding our arm out...


Then we got more and more tired and began making silly faces


My silly platypus face

Over all we had a good weekend, Michael's work events went really well, and we got to have some fun together too.

April Showers bring:

I planted daffodil and tulip bulbs this past fall. It was my first time to try them. I took this picture in early march of the daffodil bulbs beginning to surface. I thought about the bulbs during ice storm 2007 (followed by the wind noise), that although the ground was frozen and the weather was harsh, below the surface flowers were preparing for spring. That led me to think about how sometimes people just see us on surface, but God is working on the inside of to prepare us for great things or working on our hearts to prompt us to change and grow in Him.

Spring is finally here and my flowers are blooming. I didn't believe my friend when she told me pansies could survive the winter and would bring great color, but it was true!

I learned something new about tulips: one day I came home and they were all closed like this one above

Another day they were all open like this one. So I googled it, and found that depending on light and temperature tulips will open and close their flower to protect the pollen inside to have the best chance of survival. I thought how cool that even flowers are equipped by God to take care of themselves. What a great and mighty God we serve!

I would like to see some research...

Every spring when these characters come out to entice those driving by, I wonder...how much extra business they get from having lady liberty and uncle sam out waving like crazy at people?! And what does lady liberty do doing the slow season?

Sweat Bunny or Sweat Chicken?

I ran a 10k today and I thought I'd post a gross picture of what my t-shirt looked like when I was done running:



Depending on how you look at the picture, the big circle in the middle of my t-shirt kind of resembles a bunny or a chicken. The bunny is pretty obvious with the circle being the head and the two points coming off the top being the ears. The chicken, on the other hand, is a bit more abstract. If you look at the bunny's left ear and pretend that it is the tail of the chicken and then if you look at the bunny's right ear and pretend it's the chicken's head, you'll start to see the chicken emerge. It looks like it's sitting down on top of it's eggs.

Annaleise is probably not going to be very impressed that I posted this picture, but I've recently developed a fascination with the various sweat animals that appear on my t-shirts after I've been running and so I felt compelled to share.

What do you think? Chicken or bunny?

Update on a Goal

One of my goals for 2008 was to run a 10K. Seeing as how I've never really been a runner (and by that I mean I'd never run more than three consecutive miles in my life... and that was a rare occasion) I spent the first four weeks of 2008 trying to get to the point where I could "easily" run two miles.

By the end of those four weeks, I was comfortably (not easily, but comfortably) running two miles. At that time, I began the 10K training program below:



A blue X means I completed that day's run. A blue square means that I did not complete that day's run. Not to make excuses but the one blue square is because I had a migraine headache that day and the thought of moving, much less running, made me want to vomit.

I post this to inspire any would be runners out there who have been deterred by their lack of previous running experience. I played high school football, have terrible knees, had knee surgery in high school, and I will run a 10K as part of a relay team in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in three weeks. If I can do this, so can you. If you're free that day, April 27th, you should come out and cheer us on.

In the words of the great running prophet, "Just run baby!"

And.. not to be outdone by "Just run baby!" I also want to remind you of the lyrics so eloquently penned and performed by Sheryl Crow herself, "Run baby run."

She was married to cyclist and Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, so obviously she must know a thing or two about running.

We will see how long it lasts...

I have started another just for fun blog...may be interesting to some and not to others:

http://myadventuresincooking.blogspot.com/

Chesapeake Sunset

While the cat is away the mice will play....Ew, I can't believe I referenced that...I hate mice!


BEFORE


After


I painted the kitchen "chesapeake sunset" the other night while Michael was out of town. I wanted it to be a warm gold color. It turned out a lot brighter than I thought it would, but it is such a small space that it is not too overpowering. The curtain and clock are new. I am not sold on the curtain, so I may keep looking. YAY for being in our house two years and starting to do somethings I have wanted to do! :)