I have been home sick all day. Yuck. I do not like being sick, as if anyone does. I have been in my bed watching tv under the electric blanket for most of the day. I feel a little better althogh my throat still hurts! I would love some chicken soup but I don't have any here in the house and I am not going to get dressed to go out and get some! I am hoping that I feel much better tomorrow. I am covering for one of the other supervisors tomorrow so I don't have much choice, I have to go in. I will just have to take some tylenol cold and flu with me and suffer through the day if I feel bad.
Tomorrow is Halloween and we have Aiden this weekend so I really want to be feeling good tomorrow so I can go with Jeremy to take him trick or treating! He picked out a Diego costume. He loves Diego. Saturday is his birthday party. He was asking me on the phone to name all the people that were coming to his party so I was naming everyone and he said "wow gramma, all those people just for Aiden?" LOL the kid cracks me up. I can't wait to see him I haven't seen him in over two weeks since we were in San Franciso the last weekend that Jeremy had him. I miss him!
The camper is going to be coming home on Monday or Tuesday. We will have to clean it out and get it ready for winter storage. How sad. I will be looking forward to April when it can be pulled back out and used again. I love warm weather and I am not looking forward to the winter. I hate getting up in the morning and going outside in that cold air and driving to work. I bettet stop thinking about it!
Well it is almost time for Greys to come on so I better go get back under the electric blanket and get ready. Have a good day.

After much debate, Nike ended up giving the win to both of the runners. They were really going to give it to the "elite" runner but there was such an uproar about it they ended up giving it to both. There was no money involved in this event, the winners got tiffany bowls so I guess that made the decision a little easier. I guess there was something like this that happened in the Chicago marathon this year also. I don't know the details so I am going to investigate it. I think that fastest chip time should win, why else do they make you pay for the chip?? It costs $30 for that chip, if it is going to go to the first to cross the line (if everyone starts at the same time then this isn't an issue) then we don't need a chip!! I sure as heck wish I could go out and run a 2:55 marathon the first time I ran one!! GO GIRL!

Interesting....

I was just reading on line about the discrepancy in the winner of the marathon that I just ran. This is what happened. The "elite" runners start 20 minutes before the rest of the runners start. (us slow regular ones!) The elites started at 6:40am and the rest of us started at 7:00am. Sometimes it takes half an hour to get all the runners across the start line. The clock starts right at the gun shot at 7am but the chip on your shoe does not start until you cross the finish line. So your acutal run time may not be the same as what the clock says, depending on how long it takes you to get to the start line. Did that make any sense? I hope so.

Well anyways, the first woman to cross the finish line was one of the elites and her time was 3 hours and 6 minutes. Now one of the regular runners who started 20 minutes later completed the marathon in 2 hours and 55 minutes. Although the elite runner crossed the line first because she started 20 minutes earlier, the other girl finished in a faster time. Who do you think they made the winner of the marathon??

The marathon

The weather on the day of the marathon was nothing less than perfect. (for a marathon at least!) I am sure the spectators did not think it was perfect. We had to park at AT&T park and take a shuttle over to Union Square where the start was. We got there very early and it wasn't that crowded when we first were there but that changed very quickly. There were 20,000 running this marathon. Mostly women, since it was the Nike Women's Marathon, but there were men who ran it. The marathon benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so alot of the men that were running it have had loved ones who have had blood cancers and they were running in honor or in memory of that person.
It was quite chilly out at 7am. I ran with a sweat shirt on for the first 3 miles. Brenda had one on also. We had to take them off at mile 3 and we hid them in a newspaper box and called our husbands (who were together) to come get them out of it! I am amazed the found them, but they did! This picture of Brenda and I at the starting line is dark but you can see us. Brenda has a garbage bag over her. It keeps you very warm.
There were lots of hills in this marathon that is for sure. Someone had told me before I went that it wasn't that bad since most of the race is along the ocean. They lied. It was TOUGH! Mile 6 to mile 7 was literally one long continious hill. I thought I was going to die right then and there. Going down it was great though! Brenda only ran the half marathon so for the last half of the marathon I was on my own. It wasn't to bad. The sceanery was awesome there. Crossing that finsh line was heaven though.
When you cross the finish line there are men in tuxes (they are all San Francisco fire men) who have little green tiffinany boxes on platters. Inside those little tiffinany boxes is your tiffinany necklace, which is your medal for finishing the marathon. I will have to take a picture of mine to show you all how pretty it is. It was worth it!

I want to say a special thank you to all of you that supported me during this marathon. You may have donated money, you may have said encouraging words, you may have said prayers for me. Whatever it was it was greatly appreciated! I haven't decided which one I am doing next or if it is going to be a half or a whole marathon but I WILL be doing another one! That was number 5 and my goal is to finish 10 events for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
But for right now I am just enjoying the days of no running, just recovering!

Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39

Pier 39 and Fishermans warf was so much fun. Lots of shopping and eating to do there! If you like fresh seafood, this is the place to be! Mark and I had clam chowder in a bread bowl and let me tell you that was the best clam chowder I have ever had. We also stopped at a place called "wipeout". That is the place where we are all sitting with our drinks. Those were the most expensive drinks I have ever had! We each had one drink and the girls orderd some chili fries and our bill was $60!! We should of known it was going to be bad when there were no prices listed on the menu! Oh well we had a good time. That was the day after the marathon and I didn't care how much the drinks were, I was drinking them!
The sea lions were so odd. I don't know why they all hang around in that one spot but they do and apparently they have been there for years. They push each other off and yell at each other and they stink! But they were fun to watch.
Josh did really well in his meet yesterday. He cam in 6th and he ran the best time that he has ever run. He was very happy with himself. I took him out to lunch yesterday before I headed back home. It was good to get to spend some time with him.
Yesterday was also trick or treating at the camper. There were quite a few kids that were there trick or treating. I love seeing the different costumes. One boy was dressed up as a fly swatter. The fly swatter part of it was made out of cardboard and the middle of the swatter was the boys face which was made up like a squashed fly! it was funny. Another girl was dressed up as a toothbrush! Cute.
Last night was Kristens last game that she had to cheer at. It was very cold out there last night but the girls had a good time. I almost froze. Mark and Johnny were at the Michigan/Michigan State game. They had more fun that I did I can assure you of that.
Well I am off to do laundry. Have a great day!

Santa Cruz

We drove to Santa Cruz on Saturday. It was a little cloudy and cool when we first got there but it warmed up and we had a great time. There was an amusment park right on the beach by the ocean. I loved it. There were so many shopping stores there also. The big building (yellowish) had a huge arcade and lots of stores and food in it.


This is the one ride that I rode, acutally Brenda and I rode it together. We decided that if we were going to an amusment park we needed to ride at least one ride! Then we had to go shopping!

We walked out onto the pier, it was LONG! There were lots more stores out on the pier and also lots of places to eat. The views from the pier were awesome. I loved this view of the amusement park for the pier.
The drive to Santa Cruz from San Fran was a little over an hour but it was awesome. At some points it seemed like the earth just ended at the edge of the freeway! The drop was so far down!
I am going to Josh's cross country meet today. It is a two hour ride away but I love to see him run and he still loves to have his mom come so I will be leaving here in just a few minutes. I will make another post later today with some pics from Fishermans warf and Pier 39! Have a great day.
My new "sangria times" picture is from the pier at Santa Cruz also.

I didn't want to go to Alcatraz but everyone else did so I went along. I LOVED it! I was so into the tour and everything there. The tour was great. I really did not know anything about Alcatraz before I went on the tour. It was an audio tour. We walked around all the different parts of the island but the best was the acutal cell block. The audio had some acutal inmates on it. They spoke about the different things that went on at Alcatraz. There was one part where one of the ex inmates spoke about one of the escape attempts. Life in Alcatraz was brutal. There was an ex inmate there on the island the day that we were there. He had written a book about his time at Alcatraz. I bought the book and he signed it for me. Lyndsay read the book on the airplane on the way home so I have not had a chance to read it yet, but it is next on my list. ( I know, I know, I wasn't supposed to buy anymore books till I had finished the one's I already have!)

The pictures that are on the top of the page are taken at Alcatraz. One is a cell and one is of the apartments where the employees and thier families lived. I had no idea that entire families lived on Alcatraz while the prisioners were there. The children rode a ferry into San Francisco each day to school. Some days there would be inmates on the ferry home with them! Can you imagine? The other picture is a picture of Brenda and I on the boat on the way over to the island. It was great.

I need to figure out how to arrange pictures in my posts so they aren't all at the top. I will add more entries about my vacation and the marathon.

I am home!

I am home and I am sore! I have so many pictures and so many stories but I have so much do to here at home first. I am sore everywhere. The marathon was the toughest one I have ever done. The hills in San Francisco are tough but I made it though the entire 26.2 miles! It was awesome. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society did great with this marathon. The Nike Womens Marathon is dedicated entirely to the LLS. I think the grand total for this martahon was 18 million! Lets hope and pray that there is a cure soon.

Loved this, got it in an email

Subject: Fwd: Court Case


The first thing I remember is sitting on a bench in the waiting room of what I thought to be a court house.

The doors opened and I was instructed to come in and have a seat by the
defense table.

As I looked around I saw the 'prosecutor.'

He was a villainous looking gent who snarled as he stared at me.

He definitely was the most evil person I have ever seen.

I sat down and looked to my left and there sat My Attorney,
a kind and gentle looking man whose appearance seemed so familiar to
me, I felt I knew Him.

The corner door flew open and there appeared the Judge in full flowing
robes. He commanded an awesome presence as He moved across the room I couldn't take my eyes off of Him.

As He took His seat behind the bench, He said, 'Let us begin.'

The prosecutor rose and said, 'My name is Satan and I am here to show
you why this woman belongs in hell.'

He proceeded to tell of lies that I told, things that I stole, and in
the past when I cheated others Satan told of other horrible perversions that were once in my life and the more he spoke, the further down in my seat
I sank.

I was so embarrassed that I couldn't look at anyone, even my own
Attorney, as the Devil told of sins that even I had completely forgotten about.

As upset as I was at Satan for telling all these things about me, I was
equally upset at My Attorney who sat there silently not Offering any
form of defense at all.

I know I had been guilty of those things, but I had done some good in my
life - couldn't that at least equal out part of the harm I'd done?

Satan finished with a fury and said, 'This woman belongs in hell,
she is guilty of all that I have charged and there is not a person who
can prove otherwise.

When it was His turn, My Attorney first asked if He might approach the
bench.

The Judge allowed this over the strong objection of Satan, and beckoned Him to come forward.

As He got up and started walking, I was able to see Him in His full
splendor and majesty.

I realized why He seemed so familiar; this was Jesus representing me, my
Lord and my Savior.

He stopped at the bench and softly said to the Judge, 'Hi, Dad,' and
then He turned to address the court.

'Satan was correct in saying that this woman had sinned, I won't deny
any of these allegations.

And, yes, the wage of sin is death, and this woman deserves to be
punished.

Jesus took a deep breath and turned to His Father with outstretched arms and proclaimed, 'However, I died on the cross so that this person might have eternal life and she has accepted Me as her Savior, so she is Mine.'

My Lord continued with, 'Her name is written in the Book of Life, and no
on e can snatch her from Me.

Satan still does not understand yet. This woman is not to be given
justice, but rather mercy.'

As Jesus sat down, He quietly paused, looked at His Father and
said, 'There is nothing else that needs to be done.' 'I've done it all.'

The Judge lifted His mighty hand and slammed the gavel down. The
following words bellowed from His lips..

'This woman is free.'

'The penalty for her has already been paid in full.'

'Case dismissed.'

As my Lord led me away, I could hear Satan ranting and raving, 'I won't
give up, I will win the next one.' I asked Jesus as He gave me my
instructions where to go next, 'Have you ever lost a case?'

Christ lovingly smiled and said,

'Everyone that has come to Me and asked Me to represent them has
received the same verdict as you,

~Paid In Full~

Whew!

I am amazed at all that I have gotten accomplished in the last 24 hours. My house is soooooo clean. I did floors, dusted, changed sheets, all the laundry! I even washed a few windows. (well you the ones that the dogs put there faces all over and mess up!) It looks so wonderful. If it could just stay this way. Acutally it will stay this way for quite awhile since there will not be anyone here except for my nephew who will house and dog sitting for us. So when I come home it will be all good. Maybe I can keep up with it. Until Christmas break when the boys come home that is.
I also finished quite a few of those books that was telling you about earlier. I can't belive how many books I had started that I had not finished. Alot of them I was very close to finishing also. Not sure why I do that but oh well. I did finish some more of them.
Pieces of my sisters life. By Elizabeth Joy Arnold. This one was good. I am surprised that I didn't finish it before. The ending surprised me since she didn't end up with the guy the way they usually do.
Sinners by Jackie Collins. Liked this one. I like most of her books.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Loved this one. Cried for real several times. I enjoyed Five People you meet in Heaven when I read that one also. I am currently reading For just one more day. It is really good so far also.
What's so amazing about Grace by Philip Yancy. This one is not a novel. It is about Grace and what Grace is in the Bible. It was really good. So that is four down. And ummm I have no idea how many to go but I can't start any new ones till I finish the ones I have already started (or give up on depending on the situation) I hope to finish one today also.
I have the luggage out and have got a few piles started to go into it. I should have that completed by tonight also. I have to work Monday and Tuesday and we live at 10:30am Wednesday so I need to get it done.
Mark is out working in the yard getting it all done before we go too. He is cleaning and packing the tent up from when we went to Talladega last weekend and cutting the lawn. Nothing we can do to stop it from growing while we are gone so that will be probably be ready to cut when we get back!
I made the bacon cheeseburger meatloaf for dinner last night. I got the recipe from Tawnya's blog again. This stuff was AWESOME! All of us liked it and Kristen is hard to please but she loved it too. Tonight is chicken fried steak (from the same journal!)
Have a great one!

Time to clean and pack

Well that run is done! Thank goodness. It amazes me that even after all the miles that have been run, there is still soreness when you complete a run! I would think the body would get used to it after awhile. I guess part of it is due the age of this body! It just doesn't like long runs anymore.
I am going to spending alot of time cleaning and packing this afternoon. Things need to get done before we leave and I am determined to not leave the house in a shambles. I know how much I hate to come home to a house that looks like hell. I want to walk into a nice clean house so that is what shall happen. I guess that means I need to get busy.

Last group run!

I am just getting ready to leave for the last group run before the marathon. This one will be fun. Well not really fun, we still have to run 8 miles this morning but it will be fun because everyone will be really excited and in good moods! There are quite a few of us going to San Francisco, although we all leave at different times. Most of the group will only be gone Friday to Monday. We extended our trip so we could enjoy a little vacation while we were there. We will be gone from Wednesday to Tuesday. I have searched all over "my pictures" file to find my pics from the Bayshore marathon that I ran in May but I can't find them at the moment and I have no clue as to why. I will have to dig a little bit more when I get home from the run. Well here I go to be with me "team" for one last fun run before the "big one"!!

He is home now

Well we are home now. He is resting comfortably finally. He is going to need surgery. He has a varicocele. Usually they don't require surgery but his is causing pain so he will need to have it fixed. One of my twins had to have his fixed also but his was aggrivated alot by all the running that Josh was doing. Jeremy also has an infection of some sort, they did some cultures and they are thinking he might have e-coli. This could also be causing more pain. He goes in to the urology surgeon on Monday so we will know more then. They gave him pain meds to control the pain so hopefully he will be comfortable. Mom is exhausted. Even though he is 22 years old and has a child of his own, I still get emotional when they are really hurt or sick. I guess that will never change.
I made chicken and dumplings tonight for dinner. I got the recipe from Tawnya, she has a journal called "food glorious food" and I took some her recipes. Tonight I made the chicken and dumplings and yummy!!!!! Thanks for a great recipe Tawnya! Tomorrow I am making the bacon cheeseburger meatloaf. The twins are home for the weekend tomorrow and they love meatloaf and they love bacon cheeseburgers so I am thinking they are going to love this meatloaf. I think I am going to also. Then on Saturday I am gong to make the chicken fried steak. I am so looking forward to these meals! I went grocery shopping and got all the things I needed for those meals today so I am all set.
I did manage to burn the hell outta my hand while I was making dinner tonight though. I was draining some of water (yea boiling water) out of the pan cuz I knew it was going to be too much liquid and I managed to pour it right on my hand. This is the first time I have had it out of ice since I did it and yes it hurts so I think I am going to have to put it back in a few.
I hope you all have a wonderful night! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my son.

Good Morning

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Good Morning

Good Morning Everyone,
I have not been having the best of mornings. My son is in emergency, he has been there since last night. He also went on Sunday night. He is in terrible pain and they can't figure out what is wrong with him. Last night they ended up keeping him and they are arranging a consult with a surgeon. He has had ultrasounds, MRI's and catscans and they have not found anything. His white blood cell count is very high so there is something going on. He is in ALOT of pain. I hope they find something out soon. My husband and I were up there last night and I am going to be heading back up there in just a little while. Right now it is just a waiting game. Please keep him in your prayers.
I finished my book "Message from Nam" by Danielle Steele. I liked the book but towards the end it got to the point where I just wanted to find out the end result. (which is always the same in a danielle steele book but...) so I ended up skimming though the last 50 or so pages and got to the finish. I am half way through my new book it is "Sinners" by Jackie Collins. I really like this one. I have made a deal with myself that I will finish all the stacks of books that I have around here before I buy another book or before I go get any more from the library. I am a self admited book addict. I have books that have been sitting here for years that I haven't read yet because I keep getting more . I have 8 books that I have started but not finished, not because I didn't like the book but because I bought another and started it. So I made the deal with myself to get rid of the piles. I did manage to do it with the magazines! That was another whole mess there! I think I had 20 subscriptions and then I would still buy more at the stands. Bad huh? Well they would sit and sit and sit because I had so many I just didn't know where to start and I couldn't bring myself to throw any away before I had gone through them! While I was on vacation I managed to make a huge dent in those magazines. I only have one bag left and as new ones come in I sit down with them and go though them so they are not being added to the piles. It is starting to look much better next to my bed now! Not as many piles! I also have not renewed any of the subscriptions that have come up for renewal. That was tough. I am only keeping a few. The ones I really like, Runners World and Shape. Those are the ones I am keeping. The boys love Runners World too so that is a good choice, it gets read by three people.
Well I am off to the hospital. Hopefully I will get to finish my book. And then get to work on one of the others that I have started at some point! I pinky promise I can do this!!!

Posted by Linda at 7:04 AM

OOPS

So I saw the link that you use to import your aol journal to blogger. So I did it. Only thing is, it imported it to a new journal on blogger! Oh well at least it is all saved even if it isn't on this one. I will continue on here.

Slow down!

Today has been so busy so far! I haven't had a chance to take a breath. Thankfully it has slowed down some and I can breathe for a moment! Everyone just seems to want something from me today. I should lock my office door and act like I am out for the day! Somehow I don't think that will work.

I really like blogger. I am finding all kinds of new journals and also some that I had lost track of over time and am really happy to have found them again! I really like the way some of them are "dressed up" too. I still can't seem to figure out how to get a background on mine. I went to one of the sites and did what it told me to do but when I tried it, it told me there was something wrong with it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get a background in? I thought I was pretty good at this compter journaling thing but when faced with a new venue I guess I am not as good as I thought!

Tonight I am going to start packing for the San Francisco trip. If not packing at least figuring out what it is we need to take with us. I need to find out what the temperture is going to be like while we are there. I know I will have to take all my running gear but that has to be carried on in my carry on. If I put it in my luggage and the luggage gets lost I will be screwed for running the marathon. I would never be able to break in a pair of shoes fast enough to run 26.2 miles in them without getting blisters. Not that that won't happen anyways but it would be more likely with new shoes. I know that we also have an indoor pool where we are staying so I better take a suit too. I won't be able to go in a hot tub after the marathon so if they have one there I better go in the few days before the marathon. After the marathon it is all ice baths for the next few days! We are going to be going to Santa Cruz for a day. I can't wait to go there. I loved it there last time I went and I didn't get to really enjoy it then since I had all five of the kids with me and that was ten years ago so they were all little. I am looking forward to the whole trip....fishermans warf, pier 39, alcatraz! And Seafood!!! I remember how good the seafood was there. Oh I can't wait. Only four more work days and I will be able to go!

Well I guess I better end my break and go back to work. Have a great day!

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Well I finally got it fixed! For some reason I did not have a tab that said layouts, it said template. When I would click on it, it would tell me that I need to upgrade to layouts but when I clicked on it it wouldn't do anything. For some reason when I got home and tried it at home it let me do it on this computer. Who knows! But it is fixed and i am happy!

Help

Can someone please help me with a problem I am having with my blog. I am trying to add a different background and it tells me I need to click on the layouts link in my dashboard. But I don't have a layouts link, I have a template link. I also want to add a list of journals I read and it tells me I have to add the layouts feature to my blog. When I try to do that it won't let me. It won't change from templates to layouts. ????

Hello everyone!

Well my trip was so much fun! We left early Thursday morning, at 5:30am, it felt like I was going to work. I knew I wasn't and I drove right past the exit that I would normally get off of to go to work so I just waved as we went on by! It took us 12 hours to get there but we made it with no problems. We only had to stop two times to get gas. Once we got there we had to get our tent and things set up. It was dark by that point. We all sat around the campfire and talked and had a few drinks. It was relaxing and we all got to catch up with each other lives.

Friday I didn't feel so good when I got up (I think those drinks and a day of not eating much had gotten to me) so I kinda just sat around for a bit. I had some cereal and around noon my husband decided that I needed a bloody mary to lift my spirits. Yum. That helped. We went to the ARCA race on Friday afternoon and it was really good. After the race we decided to go walk around the camp ground and see what kind of trouble everyone was getting into. There was a band at one of the campsites that hundreds of people had gathered around to listen to. We stayed till 11pm when they quit playing. What a great band they were. We went and sat around the campfire again for awhile before going to sleep. I slept like a log that night!

Saturday morning we all got up early and made a huge breakfast. It was so yummy! We played dice for awhile and then went walking around to all the vendor booths and bought some new tshirts and things. The Craftsmens truck race was Saturday afternoon and it was a GREAT race. It was a great finish. My husband (Mark) won the pool on that one and he was very happy about that. Saturday night Linda's husband (colin) made shrimp boil. There was shrimp, spicy sasague and corn in a huge pot and you just boiled it all together. It was so good! I think after we ate we all kinda fell into a food coma!

Sunday we made a huge breakfast again. Sunday is the big race and we all put the names of all the drivers into a pot and pick names. We each had seven drivers. Linda (Linda is my girlfriend that lives in florida, she used to live here in michigan but she moved when we were in 7th grade but we have remained friends since that time) won the money for that one! Lucky girl. That race was awesome. It was not dominted by any one person for the whole race and I like it when it is competitive. Tony Stewart ended up winning the race.

Monday morning we got up early to start home. It was a long drive and i was glad to be home. Today I am back to work. Looking forward to leaving next wednesday for San Francisco! I can't wait for that trip.

I will post some pictures tonight after I get them uploaded!