Mike hasn't really been around much the last two weeks, hence the lack of posting...again. Where has he been you ask? Working.

But I'm fine with that, because look what all that hard work has earned us...

A week in Mexico!!!!! Yes, next March the two of us will depart dreary Michigan and head to Neuvo Vallarta, Mexico to the Grand Velas Resort ! The best part is it won't cost us a thing. Check out this place...it's awesome!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this new job? And how proud I am of my dear husband who has been kicking butt in this new job???

He had to earn X number of points in a time-frame and then we got to pick from a list of 17 different trips as a "reward". It's by far not the most glamorous trip in the list, but for the first one we want to keep the outside the program expenses in the affordable range so this one works ~zip line over the tree tops is on our must do list while there. Plus we've talked to others in the company that have gone there before and they say it's one of their favorite trips.

Now, some out there would say...hmmm, so when I invest with this company, this is what they do with my $$? Actually, no. It's part of his commission package, they just hold it aside and dangle it as a sort of carrot to build the his business. If you earn it...have fun; if not...hope you get it next time. Which I do hope he gets it next time because we're looking at a trip to Egypt with a 3 day Nile River cruise involved in it.

Do you think it would be tacky if in his sales pitch he'd say something like...."Please invest with me, my wife wants to go to Egypt" ? Yeah, probably not a good idea. But Mike is doing awesome with this job and loving every minute of it so if we do go to Egypt ~ BONUS, but if we don't that's fine too, there will be other trips. He has the chance to earn two each year.

I guess it's time for me to hit the pavement. Want to look good in my bathing suit on the beach!

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In other news:

From what I can tell, marathon training has been going well. Work & cub scouts has kept him pretty busy, but he's managed to squeeze in some running time. I can't believe the Detroit Marathon is less than a month away already. I will be working the Expo on Saturday morning in the race packet pick up department. I've got the 9am- 12:30pm shift so the family will be down there checking things out and then we'll grab some lunch in the area. We're thinking Pizzapapali's ~ Mike has always wanted some Chicago style pizza before the big race...never seemed to get it while in Chicago!

Thanks for reading and as always I'll try to get Mike to sit down and post again soon. Dancing with the Stars starts tonight so you know where he'll be the next 3 evenings!!!!!

Fun Guv wants me to posts about things like......

ok, first a small story, i heard this one a few weeks ago and wish i knew who the original author was but....

....little boy and his grandfather are walking along a beach after a high tide. As they walk, the boy picks up starfishes that the tide had washed up on the beach and flings them back into the surf.

The grandfather asks the boy ",what are you doing?"

"I'm saving the starfishes," he replies.

"but son, there are thousands of starfishes washed up on the beach. You won't be able to save enough to make a difference."

The little boy nodded in agreement and the two continued their little walk.

A few minutes later, they came upon a starfish on the beach. The little boy stopped and thought for a moment. He picked up the starfish and threw it into the surf. He looked at his grandfather and said.

"It made a difference to that one"

No. Let's move on from the story. back to what Fun Guv wants me to post about.

See this story reminds me of a few things, like how we reap what we sow....

Fer'instance....is it irony or poetic justice that a lawmaker should spend years of their life devoted to the notion that abstinence should be the only birth control method taught in school and wind up with a knocked-up teenage daughter???? What difference can another teenage pregnancy make?

and let's get going on "America First". What does this mean???? Apparantly, it doesn't mean buying American things...like maybe cars. As a crazy McCain child, adult not teenage, goes out and buys a Toyota cause well, it's a hybrid. i think some hybrids are made by american car companies. But what difference can one car make????

Anyway....on to the cool thing lately....Thanks Great Lake Running Gal, for the pictures of yours truly finishing up the aptly named "This Sucks" leg of "Dances with Dirt"

Let's give a brief report on the race. i ran three legs of the 100K relay. i was given leg 2....Butt Kicker.....a brutal narrow pathway up and down an impossible number to count hills. Open areas filled with poison ivy and lot's of ducking of tree limbs. Except for the one i didn't duck from, only to wind up with a bruised forehead and scratches on my right eyelid. one trip on a root, with a fun roll, and one run through 5 inch depth mud pit (no problem) on this nasty little 4.5 mile run.



Then came leg 6....i wanted the bog and i got the bog...."This Sucks" 5.7 miles long, with a teasing first 3.5 of nasty hills, from the dry, unshaded tops to the humid, muggy valleys this was a long antipication to....

Bog One....slightly above my knees in depth and about 15 feet across. i took a step and fell face first in. This one was the shallowest but also the thickest to get through. Maybe it felt that way being the first....

then a shuffle through some woods to....

Bog two....slightly above my waist, i little wider and like trying to walk through pudding, only with mosquitoes and nasty stagnant water smells.

Then a quick wander through about 3 inches of mud for a couple hundred yards to, the big one....

Bog three.... This one had a little bit of a back up, as a few people were trying to gingerly enter on my right side. So i went left and took a big leap on the side and ended up....in chest deep bog. Thank gawd my feet hit solid ground as i sank. This was the oddest feeling, it was real thick but a was able to work through the quicksand-esque pit. Amazingly, as it got shallower, like waist deep, the bog was thicker and harder to get through. The dig up the side to get out of the bog was essentially a crawl.

Then, boom out of the crap and on to a nice little unshaded, flat trail, to finish up at a local school. Just enough time to allow the mud to bake in on a sunny day!!!!




It may have been the most fun, i've ever had!!!!! Notice the "white" socks and "white" running shoes. There's even mud in my teeth.

My last leg was Leg 12....Vertigo....dry, weird....but...extremely hilly. Too hilly to run down the steep trails. It was mostly a run up, with a little skip down, while using little trees to help slow me down and balance. This last one was 3.5 miles, and even though it was dry...it was still fun.

So our team finished it 10 hrs and 31 minutes.....We all crossed the line together and recieved some awesome finishing medals....a couple pizzas and a 2 liter of coke.

"Dances with Dirt" is the most fun i have ever had at the running event and no single blog post can do it justice.....

If you ever get a chance to run a portion of this baby....do not hesitate to go.

Thanks for reading.

Aaah...the sound of silence!

They've gone back to school...now it is time for me to spend my long peaceful days eating bon-bons & watching soap operas. Ha! Like I have time for that, there are funds to be raised for the school and colorguard uniform pieces waiting to be cut out.

I can't believe how quickly the summer just suddenly ended on us this year. It just didn't seem like it was time to go back, but alas it was.

7th Grade...can you believe it?

2nd Grade

We spent the last 1/2 week of summer doing a little more camping. I left Wednesday with my mom and the kids and headed back to Yankee Springs. It was a nice relaxing 4 days, though it's kind of weird not having the big group that I'm used to when camping. Lauri, Hunter & Grace came by on Saturday for a little bit to hang out too, which of course was fun.

The first night (and each night afterwards actually) I made the fire all by myself

We hung out and roasted marshmallows

This time Jimmy remembered his fishing pole and check out the bass he caught! Bait was pieces of hot dog. It was so big they couldn't reel it in (we didn't have a net) so they asked a guy passing by if he'd help them out. Jimmy wouldn't touch it, but he had to have his picture taken with it. Where's Cookie when you need him, that could have been dinner!

The beach was extremely crowded...duh, Labor Day weekend...but that meant there were tons of kids to meet & play with.

As usual, Jimmy took a nap on his towel. It wouldn't be a week spent at a beach if he didn't do that at least once. All that digging & swimming takes it right out of you.

Now it's time to get ready to head to Pickney for another short camping trip...Dances with Dirt is this weekend. Maybe afterward Mike will do something completely unusual and post on his own blog and tell all about the experience....stranger things have happend you know!

Thanks for reading