friday feature...lyme disease

i grew up in the south with a lot of trees and a lot of bugs especially ticks. everyone knew ticks were bad, and you always had to make sure you didn't have them. i heard the words lyme disease, but i never knew much about what it was other than bad. 

one of my good friends got married in the past couple of years and we kind of lost touch until last week when he posted this video of his wife on facebook. she tells her story of her battle with lyme disease in hopes of raising awareness of this horrible disease. one of the beauties of blogging is having a little space on the internet to share meaningful things. this video is worth watching. i had no idea how horrible lyme disease can be and how limited treatments are. i would love to know your thoughts.

i was so sad and shocked watching this. naturally i also wish there was something i could do. do you know anyone with lyme disease? what do you think about all this?

disneyland part 1...meet the characters

a few announcements... if you missed it yesterday i was over at academic advancements talking about everyone's favorite topic difficult behavior and discipline it's been a while since i've dressed like a toddler so i've over at just jacq today doing just that. i'm still looking for guest co-hosts for blogging the bach and finally if you don't get an email reply from me to your comment, it means you are no reply. do yourself a favor and fix it pronto.

my sister and brother in law decided to take their kids to disneyland a couple of weeks ago. i wasn't about to miss out on the fun. they didn't tell the kids until the morning of, and it was so exciting surprising them. we did disneyland and california adventure for 2 days with a day off in between. the day off in between was perfect especially since i ended up getting food poisoning. i took a ton of pictures so i'm definitely splitting this up into a few posts.  we didn't make a plan for seeing characters or necessarily want to stand in line for hours and hours to meet anna and elsa. basically we didn't know exactly what we were going to do.
we walked in and saw goofy first thing. kyler didn't know what to think about the big characters.

 we saw mickey on main street right after that.

 karlee and karson were so excited to see mickey

 kyler still isn't sure what to think

 we went to toon town and waited less than 20 minutes to get into minnie's house.

 karlee snuck back in to say hi one more time.

 we came out of minnie's house and saw goofy again.

 kyler is still nervous

we didn't really see any princesses the first day so we made sure to find a few the second day. karlee was a little whiny in line and said she didn't want to see the princesses. she changed her mind the second she saw belle.

 karson didn't really want to be in the pictures

 and he eventually hid behind

 aurora talked for a while about all the princesses. karlee was in heaven.

 kyler really loved cinderella. it was really cute.

 we barely saw any characters in california adventure, but we did see one bug.

 kyler finally started warming up to the characters towards the end of the day

i'll be back with all the pictures from all the rides. there are just too many good pictures not to post. oh and by the way, we skipped the anna and elsa line. PS-i said above that i'm over at just jacq today dressing like a toddler. i'm also taking advantage of her pinterest sponsor option. one of my biggest blog goals right now is to use pinterest more so i'm super excited about this option.

wear it wednesday...matchy matchy

sometimes i show up places (usually work) dressed exactly like someone else. obviously it has to be documented and posted.

i kind of love matchy matchy. i especially love it with moms and kids, but that's a whole different point. most of the time i have no problem when someone wants to buy the same thing i have. i find it flattering. i know people that prefer to be unique and really hate that. funny story...several years ago, 2003 to be exact, michelle and i and a few other friends went to nyc. we had a couple of tickets to see regis and kelly but needed more to all get in. michelle and her sister got up and left the hotel super early before the rest of us. we all met at the show, and michelle and i were totally matchy matchy. we shopped together a lot and had a lot of matching clothes, but neither of us knew we both had this sweater. it was pretty funny and made for some good picures.

how do you feel about matchy matchy? do you love it or hate it? what about when someone buys the same thing you bough? flattering or irritating? linking up

blogging the bach 10.2

as much as i love blogging the bach, sometimes i struggle to find my angle. i usually stay away from straight recap because most of you probably watched it yourself. andi's fashion is killer, but there's not as much fashion when there's only 1 girl. so, this season let's discuss lessons we can learn from the bach. LESSONS IN DATING Date #1-Eric (did anyone else get teary watching this? so very sad) 1. maybe i would be more successful in dating if i had chris harrison to provide instructions 2. be more fun (build sandcastles, fly kites, snowboard-the one time i did ended in tears). i really wish i was more fun.  3. surprises/adventures are fun (see #2) Date #2-Group Date 1. keep your clothes on (luckily that isn't a problem for me) 2. also luckily i haven't been on too many group dates since college, but if you are, bring friends (i wish kelly had more to say. i miss her) 3. sometimes it's ok to just say no (no no no to stripping) 4. watch your alcohol intake. i don't drink so this isn't a problem for me, but how embarrassing for the poor dude. 5. remember you're on a date (see #4) 6. be careful not to stereotype. thanks for the reminder josh. i'm bad at this one. Date #3-Chris 1. dress for the event. there's nothing worse than being dressed wrong for a date. 2. be genuine 3. open up 4. smile. that smile is pretty much killing me. Cocktail Party 1. take advantage of the time you have. smooth move nick v maybe if i can follow these lessons i'll have a little more success in dating?!? last week i tallied the same words from last season, but then i remembered juan pab didn't say a lot of the main words because he didn't speak english. i might not be able to keep up with all these all season, but i added a few from last week. journey...0 amazing...14 love...30 fairytale...1 right reasons...2 husband/wife...3 lucky...3 connection...2
this week's bleachable moment hands down goes to craig. bless his little heart. i'm sure he's mortified at his behavior and amount of alcohol. a few thoughts on the remaining guys eric-we know he leaves at some point and tragically passes away. i still can't believe it. marcus-definitely in my top 4 chris-so cute, seems to be there for the right reasons,i hope he sticks around ron, dylan, jj-who are they? why did she give them roses? marquel-not sure what to think andrew, tasos, cody, patrick, brett-minimal time this week josh-he's so cute, i want him in my top 4 but i'm just not sure yet brian-not sure i agree that he made his students proud by stripping??? bradley-is he the opera singer? i need 1 more week to solidify my top 4. who do you like so far? did you blog this week? make sure to link up below. in case you missed last week week 1

An InLinkz Link-up

unblogged bloggable...etched clay pots

a couple of weeks ago carissa and alexi  hosted a craft night at carissa's house. the inspiration photo for the clay pots looked easy enought...
the food was great

 some of the girls hard at work

carissa giving instructions

carissa and alexi

 finished pots

 fun times with fun friends

 my face says it all. this project was a heckuva lot more difficult than i expected.

 carissa kaylenn, alycia, me, diana
my pots look like a child made them, but the night was super fun.

i love crafts, but this one was not my best. we still had a great time and laughed our heads off. anyone need some etched pots? i have a few

26.2...Nashville

running a marathon is interesting. i'm pretty sure people think

1. i'm crazy

2. i love it

3. it's not that big of a deal because i've done it so many times

in case you didn't catch 5 little confessions this month...

1. if setting and accomplishing a goal is crazy, then yes i'm crazy. 

2. i love pushing my body, enjoying health benefits, my running friends, and the sense of accomplishment. 

3. every single race is a big deal

ever since college bff robyn moved to nashville, we have been talking about running the marathon there. between injury, surgery, and a baby, it took a while to actually do it. everything finally worked out this year, and another friend from college, allie came to run the half.

it's taken me a while to sit down and right this post because i felt like i needed to simmer down a little before writing. there were definitely some good things (goal accomplishment, time with friends, rock n roll), but overall i didn't have the best experience (very hard course, super hot, race issues).

my mom and i left in time to get to nashville late afternoon, but traffic was pretty crazy. we went straight to the expo. it was big and crazy.

even with pre-race nerves, we had a good time catching up the night before. arriving into town the evening before the race makes things a little stressful.

allie, me, robyn

robyn's dad also ran the half

bob, robyn, me, allie on race morning. the fact that it was already this light was very different from other races. 

i had no idea the race was so huge. i love all the people and crowds.

because there were so many people, start times were staggered according to projected pace. by the time my corral started it was almost 8:00am and HOT! 8:00 is way too late and 85 degrees is way too hot to start a race. it was freezing and pouring rain last year so starting earlier was probably not even an option. i really wish it was.

with allie at the start

my mom came to the race. even though i was only half way done at this point, i seriously felt like i might die.  i'm pretty sure i scared my mom when i told her i didn't know if i was going to make it. (FACT-i never ever ever consider dropping out of a race even when i possibly should). i was so hot and so thirsty. i stopped for a quick pic.

and then kept on going. besides being super hot, the course was mostly all uphill. i knew it would be hard, but i had no idea how hard. this is not a course for a runner like me. even though this was marathon #8, i felt way out of my league.

i expected to see my mom again, but i never did until the end. i'm sure she got worried i might not make it.

almost done halle freakingl ujjah

at the finish line

robyn is a really fast runner. we have done a few marathons together in the past, but this is the fist time i've seen her at the finish line. 

i did it! i ran 26.2+ miles in the blazing hot sun.

everyone always wants to know...

how i did (ok. i finished)

what was my time (about the same)

if it was hard (26.2 is hard.always).

even though it was a really hard, i'm glad i did it and will probably never do that race again.