So shiny and new ♥

Oh, silver shoes, how I love you. You put a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I knew from the first time I saw you that we would be the best of friends- your crackled metallic leather and flirty little wooden button, the sweet little strap that says "I'm a Mary Jane, but cuter." I love you. But lately, well, lately, let's be honest. You've lost some of your shine. You've become dull. I know I'm to blame. I've worn you every where. Not because I don't love you, but BECAUSE I love you. It's true.  I've searched near and far, all the corners of ebay, amazon and google and I can't find another you. So I'm spray painting you. And staining your button.

Tada!! I love spray paint. I especially love that here in NC, spray paint is not locked behind bars. I do not need to await assistance and be watched as I pick out my perfect can. I can shop at leisure. The cans can breathe. It's fantastic. Yea for NC spray paint freedom!! Yea for silver shoes!!

MUST LEARN TO RUN LIKE A VIKING.

Sooooo, P90X is an awesome workout. Seriously. The first week I was so sore I could hardly lift my arms to wash my hair, and my legs and ribs and abs ached. It hurt so good. BUT, I'm struggling. I am. The workouts are long. Real long. The sheer duration of the yoga makes me irritable. And two weeks of listening to Tony made me want to quit. So by the time the second yoga day rolled around, I had the strangest thought: I just felt like running. This is only strange if you know me. I have an aversion to running. Even in the best shape of my life, when I'd go rollerblading on the 7+ mile path at Bear Creek park just for fun, I couldn't run a mile. It's never appealed to me in the slightest. However, it appears that I may hate spending an hour and a half doing yoga with Tony even more. I found myself actually WANTING to run. It could also have something to do with the screaming kids that call me mom (that I love beyond words of course). Just the idea of escaping for a few minutes and have some quiet time to myself is very appealing. So anyhow I've been out running 4 times in the past week and a half, and 3 of the 4 runs I RAN THE WHOLE WAY WITHOUT STOPPING!! We're talking an entire mile, folks. Oh, yeah. I'm big time. I've never done this before in my entire life. Believe it. Pathetic? yup. Am I super proud? yup. The first time I did it, I walked in the house and Shannon looked a little taken away. Like "what the heck did you just do???" I looked like I had just ran about a million miles.

This is not a joke. That's me ridiculously sweaty. This is what happens when I run a whole mile. My body apparently freaks out- completely freaks out, and it cries. I don't sweat. My body just cries. Like a hysterical sobbing baby.
My girlfriend, Heather, who is awesome btw, was a personal trainer before she started staying at home with the kiddos. She has decided it would be a good idea to teach me how to run and train with me. This should be hilarious. I can't wait until she decides I'm just too pathetic to continue, but until then, I'm all for it. 

I'm in the process of finding a rental cabin in Mountain City, GA for the 2011 Warrior Dash- WOOT! (http://www.warriordash.com/register2010_southeast.php)
My mom called me up one day and told me about her friend Dora (who is also pretty awesome) and Dora's plans to participate in Warrior Dash in Dallas. She told me to check it out because it looked like something Shannon would be into. I looked it up, and found the event nearest to where we live. The map looked sooooooo familiar. Then I saw the location: MOUNTAIN CITY, GA. Population 829. Location of Blue Ridge Camp where I was a camp counselor a few summers during college. Not just the same town as this camp, but AT THE CAMP. Seriously- lake where I lifeguarded for 3 summers...Yeah, part of the course. This camp was the beginning of my love affair with that part of the country- where Shannon and I plan on retiring and living forever and ever, amen. HOW RANDOM IS THAT????  Now I HAVE TO participate. And it looks soooooooo awesome. How could you look at pictures like this and not want to participate??!?!?!

No? Not convinced?? Okay, maybe these will help. Note the costumes. Who doesn't LOVE to dress up in idiotic costumes?!? This may be the most difficult part of preparing for this event. Picking out what I'm going to wear... 

Um, and you know how much I like a competition. They give out awards. Trophies. Check it out!!!!!!!

Yeah, so obviously, I'm thinking this is soooooo fun. But it's like over 3 miles. I need to be able to run 3 miles to participate. So here we go. MUST LEARN TO RUN LIKE A VIKING. 

Anyhow, so I'm totally looking forward to this event ♥ Anybody want to join us?

I put my blood, sweat and tears into my art. hehehe, just kidding. Only the blood part is true.

Yes, seriously. Blood. It looks all sweet and innocent, right. A sweet little fabric heart in a card. A cheery little hello. A thank you perhaps. Wait. Wait a minute!

Is that? No.... Yes, that's blood! Yep, I totally just bled on my card I made for you. Hope you love it anyway :) It wiped up pretty well. Would it be weird for me to still send this to someone? Prollly, huh? Durn!

Aside from the bleeding, I quite like this little craft. If you DARE, you can make one, too!

Start with a blank card- you can get a bundle of 25 cards and envelopes at Michael's for like $5. Use your 40% coupon and you're walking out of there paying like 12 cents per card/envelope. AWESOME. Trace a heart on your card and get to cutting! Grab some scraps of fabric and a some extra cardstock. You need the cardstock to create a finished look on the back. Cut your cardstock down to the size of the front of your card- trim a little extra off the bottom because, well, because you need to. Stop arguing, just follow along! Glue your fabric down to the extra piece of cardstock.

And then glue the cardstock to the backside of the card front:

Give it a second to dry and then stitch around the edges and tie it off to complete your card.

TADAA! Wait, hold off on the Tadaa... This is the part where it can get bloody. From now on, I'll be using an awl. That's right, and AWWWWWL. It's a glorified ice pick. I'll be pre-poking my holes and possibly using a thimble. Punching through two pieces of card stock and fabric with a little needle and embroidery floss (which is difficult to thread through the little needle BTW) is no piece of cake, my friends. Maybe I'll machine stitch these going forward now that I think about it, but I like the hand made look of these...  Hmmm, decisions, decisions....

Make your own decisions and go make me a card. I look forward to receiving some lovely mail :)

I kind of lost my head.

Nope. Just kidding. Here it is. Found it.

As I was sitting in the foyer- oh yes, we have a foyer. No, our landlords have a foyer.  Still, love foyers. Totally necessary waste of space in a house in my opinion, and my forever home will certainly have the best foyer that ever was. Say it three times fast: foyer, foyer, foyer. Wow. That was fun. Anyhow- sitting in the foyer, strapping my shoes (the same shoes I've been wearing since the movers came in MAY because I STILL haven't unpacked the box marked "shoes") I heard a loud crash and heads were rolling. Literally. Okay, not heads, but head- a head, rolled out of the living room into the foyer, right past me into the hallway where it came to a stop and stared at me. Same sweet grin he's been giving me for 4 years, but not quite from the same angle. Sadness. I love this Butler. This, my friends, is one of the downsides of a walker. Or children. Children in walkers really. They can run around and break your butlers if you give them the opportunity. Should have gone with the flip flops. Stupid straps, taking up all my time and energy and focus. Ugh! Butler, you'll be missed. Or not. Shannon thinks he can fix you. Which is actually, the most uncomfortable part of this whole story. This, ladies and gentlemen...

...is the view from my bathroom. And by "bathroom" I mean toilet. I sat on my toilet and took this picture, so you can see what I see when I, well, when I go to the bathroom. He says he moved it here because the kids don't come in our room and he didn't want them messing with the headless butler and losing pieces before he gets a chance to repair him. Why not the garage?? I'm thinking this is a subtle reminder to shut the door when I do my business. What do y'all think? Creepy, right?