YAY! Fireworks!!

A little early though... Jim and I will be in Texas on the 4th of July and Annika will be with Grandma and Grand-pops at the beach so we decided to celebrate last night.



Hold on tight and pull!



Nope, nothing left in there.


Daddy's turn!


I'll throw the popper!


OH! It didn't pop, I'll just stomp on it!


Jumping works too!


Ooh! Sparklers!




And one with Daddy too.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Happy Father's Day!

Once a year everyone takes a day out of their busy lives to appreciate the special men in their lives. In my opinion, one day a year is just not enough. If you think about it, if my special man wasn't around this silly,

Messy,



and beautiful,

Little girl would not fill my every day with more love and joy than a person can imagine.

Thank you honey. Thank you for being a wonderful husband, and a perfect Dad. Annika and I couldn't ask for more. We love you!

Cooking 101

Once upon a time my mom taught me how to cook. It consisted of:

1. Grab a bowl

2. Pour Cheerios into it

3. Add a dash of milk

4. Enjoy

I've had to figure the rest out for myself. Being a wife, mom, and athlete, I figured that I needed to start being domestic and healthy. Which meant not getting PF Chang's every night or serving up chicken nuggets from the microwave.

This has been my goal for the last 6 months or so. So far I have been somewhat successful, we've really only had to throw out like 3 dishes. 3! Thats not too bad, right?

And besides, none of those were my fault... really.

Last night the domestic bug bit and I decided to make spaghetti for dinner so I put the sauce in the crock pot and let it marinade all day long while I was at work.

Seems simple really, cook meat, stick it in the pot, add sauce from the jar into the pot, mix, & cover. Easy right?

Not so much.

When we get home 8 hours later, we walk into the house and it smells great. My mouth is watering, tummy is rumbling, ready to go.

We walk over to the crock pot and find this:


mmmmmm..... Appetizing.....

Ok, so i've thrown away 4 dishes now.. but who's counting??

New Years Resolution? SUCCESS!

One of my New Years Resolutions was to read at least 12 books by the end of the year. I was doing pretty good doing a book a month until April when we moved then it slowed down until mid-May when someone introduced me to a cute little series. Some of you who live under a rock might have heard of it... Twilight? Yeah it's about vampires and is totally addicting and I think I might be in love....... But ANYWAYS! I'll share the list of books I have read already. Mostly because I have a horrible memory for stuff like this and I need to write it down before I forget. So if you don't care, just close the page now...

Ok in January/February/March I read the T'En series by Cory Daniells:


It was the 2nd time I read the 1st two books but this was the first time I actually finished the series. It was good, it was your typical love triangle involving Imoshen the last female of the mythical race (the T'En). A General has conquered her homeland killing her family and the King and Queen leaving her in charge of the kingdom. Her plan to keep herself alive is to bed the General and make him fall in love with her. It works and all goes well until her ex-fiancee shows up to take her away. She is torn between staying and protecting her kingdom or going with her ex, who by the way is the last male of the T'En race. Drama ensues and it's a pretty good story.

In April I read 'The Ends of The Circle' by Paul O. Williams:

I am glad I am done with this book. The story wasn't necessarily bad, but it certainly wasn't good enough to read the rest of the series. It was about a society that lived post-apocalypse and the main guy of the story leaves his home because of a lovers quarrel. His wife follows him and the story basically follows them through different communities and the drama that follows them.

That was when I took my hiatus until.....

Ahhhhh... just looking at them makes me all happy inside.. yeah so basically everyone knows what these are about so I probably don't need to recap. If you don't, then you're a loser and I'm not wasting my time on you. I do have to say that my favorite of the Twilight series is Breaking Dawn, and that I am beyond sad that the story had to end. I mean, really? Only 4 books? Sookie Stackhouse isn't anywhere as good and they have 9 books! I think if we all show up at Stephenie Meyer's house with torches and pitchforks she might make another book. It might be wishful thinking though... *please please please*

After Twilight *sigh* I read 'The Host' by Stephenie Meyer:
I loved this book. Note to anyone reading this book after reading the Twilight Series, just make it to chapter 3 before you decide to drop it. I say this because Twilight was so fast paced and you find yourself suction cupped to it until you finish. But 'The Host' is a bit slower. In the beginning it is hard to figure out who is who, who is talking, what the different fonts mean, etc... But just fight through the first 3 chapters and I promise you, it will be worth it.

The story follows Melanie Stryder and her host, Wanderer. Melanie is the one of the last of the "wild" humans. The others have been taken over by aliens because the Human race was too violent and the Spirits (that's what they call themselves) are extremely non-violent, with a few exceptions. Wanderer is implanted into Melanie and all seems to go well except when Melanie refuses to give in and disappear in her mind. Wanderer sees all of Melanie's thoughts and falls in love with Melanie's little brother & former boyfriend. They stray away from the rest of the spirits in search of their family. They find themselves among a whole population of wild Humans and both Melanie and Wanderer try to stay alive. It's good. You should read it. Really.

Then I started the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. First in line is 'Dead Until Dark':The storyline was great! The actual writing... not so much. Maybe I got spoiled by Stephenie Meyer, because she really is a good storyteller. Meyer can describe things so clearly that you can easily put yourself into the story without having to assume details or having to read the same sentence over and over to figure it out. When reading 'Dead Until Dark' I found myself re-reading paragraphs to try to figure out where we were. Umm.. Example: The doorbell rang, the very next sentence they were all talking. Not bad until 2 paragraphs later they brought up the fact that they were all sitting on the couch in the living room. Not horrible writing, just annoying. So much that I decided that I could not make it through another 8 books of that. HOWEVER, on the plus side, the book is pretty erotic. Makes you need a cold shower.

Then I read Twilight again... I told you... Obsessed.

Now I am reading 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult:

The main reason I am reading this is because the movie is coming out later this month and I love to read books before I see the movie for comparison, and this looks like a real good movie. It follows Anna who was born solely as a "spare parts" kid. Her older sister, Kate, has a rare form of leukemia and no one in her family was a match for what she needs. Enter Anna. Before Anna is even able to cry they have taken Anna's cord blood and use that on Kate, and that's just the beginning for this little girl. They take Anna's bone marrow, platelets, and now they are going to take a kidney. Anna gains some independence and decides that she no longer wants to be a donor for her sister. She retains an attorney and he fights for Anna's rights. I'm only half way through it but it is so far good. It seems like it will be a real tear jerker here in a few chapters.

Ok so.... *counting*...... carry the 1...... that's 12! Twelve books in 6 months! Woo hoo! Take THAT New Year's Resolution! you got PWNED! HA!

Unfortunately, after I finish 'My Sister's Keeper' I will have no book waiting to read.. So does anyone have any suggestions? You kinda know what I like to read after talking about all of them above, so if you come to me and start talking about Westerns or Historical Non-fiction, I will not only ignore you on the computer, but I will point and laugh from my couch.... but only a little :)

I truely suck at this...

But I warned you in the very beginning that I would probably quit posting after the shininess wore off. But since all my friends have resurrected their blogs, and peer pressure is all the rage, I thought, why not?

Not much longer until Team Trials! I am getting so excited and every time I think about it my abdomen fills up with hawk sized butterflies. Am I nervous? No. Not entirely sure why though. It's human nature to become nervous when a big competition comes up, but I don't feel any negative emotions about it. I am excited beyond belief though (and now i'm being repetitive).

I have been training like crazy this year, I am currently in phase 3 of our periodization table. Basically, I am turning all my muscle mass that I have been working on for the past 9 months or so into speed, and snap to add that extra "WOW" to my techniques.

We leave to Austin on July 1st and I think I may pee my pants a little that day. Last year on our flight home from Detroit we flew on a DC-9. It has roughly 26 rows. That was the day I realized that I hate flying and am prone to panic attacks in small planes. So Jim, either trying to be funny or an ass, booked us on a 72 seater plane! 72 SEATS! 72 divided by 4 seats in a row.... 18 ROWS!!

Yeah i'm gonna die...... But luckily my "supplier" aka my mother, gave me one of her xanax so I can survive the flight. Maybe i'll bring a new book with me for the flight, I have heard that that helps. I also downloaded a bunch of songs off Amazon to put on my MP3 player for the flight. I bought Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Beyonce to name a few.

Ok I posted something... Maybe i'll post again sometime before Christmas, and maybe it will be something about Annika :)