I'm Alive.. no worries. Unless you didn't want me to be,

Hi all. It's me. 

I'm alive. 

Much like Kenny Chesney. 

I've had a CrAzY busy couple of weeks and honestly, needed to drop some balls that I was juggling.

 I am all caught up. 

Much like Usher. 

So.. I give to you.. my past two weeks via my iPhone.. (which I now realize is totally copying Neely.. sorry, yo. It wasn't intentional.) 

I ran 10 miles. It was glorious and not that painful. Which makes me quite hopeful for Savannah in 32 days. 

I had dinner with the Big Guy. 

I wore a dress you could see through.. by accident. 

I learned the hard way not to wear high heels the day after running 10 miles, no matter how NOT sore your legs were that morning. 

I ate BBQ. KIDDING. I most certainly did not. But a lot of people did. Including the Tide. Sorry Pig Sooie fans. 

One of the reasons I love The Zone... 

I ate my weight in cheesy potato wedges. 

Had a date night with the Hubs.. and had a stranger ask me if I was going to the Fair. Which I was not. 

My outfit for Savannah came in.. and the shorts are monsterously large and short. Good combo! 

And last but not least... we had a sickness invade one of our children that allowed me to stay home from Gainesville. 

I may or may not have had a little cry about it.. since on my 30 by 30 list is to go to every SEC stadium.. and we only play Florida about once every 5 years.. so... it's not going to happen. BUT, it should totally count, right? I mean.. I've seen them 4 other times. RIGHT???

Anyway.. as you can tell.. or maybe not? I am not doing a giveaway at my 400th post.. I do have the things needed for said giveaway, but just no time right now. 

So.. eventually, grasshopper. 

Bare with me.. as I have lost blogging motivation. I am trying to do better. 

Fun at the Lake

After the midnight run..which I haven't blogged about.. slacker. 

It was awesome- I wanted a sub 30 min 5K- didn't happen but I shaved 2 minutes off my PR with a 30:25. So I am pretty pleased with that. Running at midnight = awesome. Except for being tired and then needing to run 4 more miles to make for 7.. which did NOT happen. My legs wanted to unattach themselves from my body and run away. 

Moving on.. Saturday we went to the lake with Rebecca, Robbie, Taylor, and MammaBo and Bobby. The girls had a blast and it was a fantastic time. Lots of laughing, swimming and FOOD. Seriously some delicious food!! 

Robbie was kind enough to send me all his pictures from the trip.. since I haven't even unloaded my memory card onto my computer.. Yikes. Slacker again. 

Not sure where she gets this...

Claire enjoys jumping off the diving board 

Sweet baby.. such a little fish! 

Someone is being Superman

He enjoyed Robbie as paparazzi 

I swear.. this next one- John was trying to help her- she tried to jump out but her legs got stuck. This better not end up on Fail Blog.

Parenting FAIL. 

Umm Ok. 

Hey look! I made a picture!

What? You mean, you DON'T get your swim cap and goggles out and throw up gang signs?? How are we internet friends??

HAPPY FRIDAY, INTERNETS!!!! 

Garage Make-over

Hi. I am alive. I've been busy with projects and sickly kiddos, but I am back. And I will be showing you what I have been working on for the last month. 

The Garage.

I can't find my very first before picture, so you don't get to see that no one could park in this bad boy. I completely cleaned it out, threw away a truck load of stuff, including 3, that's right, T-H-R-E-E Christmas trees. 

I moved all Christmas decorations out to the storage shed, and all clothes to the attic. I re-organized a lot of stuff. There is still some organization to be done, but I am pleased with the outcome. 

Along with all the organization going on, I scraped up all the old chipping paint on the floor. It was awful. Three weeks, it took me. In my defense, it probably wouldn't have taken that long if I were just going to Lowe's to pick up the paint remover, but Philly was ordering it through the store and they only get a truck once a week. It was a nightmare, and I did it all by myself and ended up making myself sick sniffing the fumes. 

But, then John banned me from helping with the rest, but which kinda ended up ticking me off since it took a total of 4 hours to complete over the course of two days. 

Anyway, here is the before picture. 

Some of the paint was totally stubborn

So, Friday evening, we moved everything out of the garage, and I mean everything that was on the floor. We did the acid bath on the floor as a clean and prep kind of thing. It sounded scary but was super easy. 

You mix it with water, spray off the garage floor with a hose, and then sprinkle the acid stuff on the floor, agitate with a stiff bristle brush, and then rinse off again. 

You get to wear awesome outfits too

Yep. No make up. Wet hair. And a Cherry Coke. Friday nights are exciting! 

Our stuff was everywhere!

Hey look! More stuff! 

Doesn't everyone keep their refrigerators on the sidewalk?

Old school Oakleys.. too bad the acid ate the tint off. 

Dropping the acid... on the floor. 

Modern day Cinderella

 It needs to set for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. So, we got up Saturday morning to paint the floor. You mix the paint color with the Epoxy and it has to set for 30 minutes before using and then you have 2 hours to use it. 

You paint in small sections

 and then spread the flakes.. that was my job. 

It has to dry for 24 hours before you can walk on it, and then 72 hours until you can drive a car on it. 

Finished product.

Maybe your wondering where all the stuff went that didn't need to sit outside in 100 degree temperatures for 72 hours... well. That answer is the inside of our house. There was STUFF everywhere. It make Philly very cranky. I can't believe he doesn't like to step over a wagon to get to his bedroom. 

Verdict? I love the floor. It's amazing. And the garage is so clean. I highly recommend doing this if you have unpainted concrete. It's not that hard to do. The scraping? I'm not sure I would do that again. It was miserable. Or maybe if I had a helper, would I consider doing that again. 

All I want to do is a ma zoom zoom zoom and a boom boom...

Just shake ya RUMP! This morning I ventured out into the cold for the Rumpshaker 5K. In case you didn't know, March is Colon Cancer awareness month. Parking was kind of an issue. They had to delay the race because it was so bad. Plus, it was colder than I expected. So, shorts and a t-shirt didn't really cut it! I ran with my best friend, Jana and her sister Haley, who is a super runner. I knew I probably wouldn't be able to hang with them b/c Haley is a super runner! Anyway, about 200 yards into it, there was a hill and I was progressively getting behind them, until finally Jana turned around and waved. Ha! I always forget how hard the transition is from treadmill to road and it was kicking my tail. My legs were going numb b/c of the cold and wind-which was killer! I had to stop at one point and take off my shoe to adjust my sock b/c it was cutting circulation off. I was extremely happy to find a water station about halfway through. The course itself, was relatively flat, but nothing to look at, since it ran through not the greatest part of Birmingham. Jana and Haley came back through to run the last little bit with me and informed me that Jana tried to outrace a walk/runner with the name "Goose" on the back of his shirt, so she sprinted the last bit and as she crossed the finish line, she vomited in her hands. But, she beat "Goose" so, I guess it was worth it? I finished around 34 minutes and Jana was around 28 and Haley at 27- good thing I didn't try to hang with those two!

Lots of Goodies and two free t-shirts... so you can't beat that!

Me and Jana-Post Race

Jana and Haley-Post Race

Jana, Me, and Haley- Post Race

After the race, we went to check Jana and Mark's new house  that they bought, but haven't moved into yet. It's super cute, just like Jana!

All in all, it was a great Saturday!

Weekend Re-Cap

We started off our weekend by taking Addison to her first gymnastics meet. It was Alabama's "Power of Pink" meet. We ate at Bento before the meet, and I am telling you, that I experienced the longest fall known to man kind. I am not kidding. John had time to turn around and ask, "Are you okay?" before I hit the ground. And I hit the ground. HARD. On all fours. On one of the busiest streets in Tuscaloosa. In front of one of the most popular bars. Luckily, no one was outside said bar, but trust me, the street was crowed and I know someone was saying, "Oh my God, did you see that girl just bust it?!!?" As long as I don't make YouTube, I am cool. Before going into the meet, I cracked Addison's eye with the seat belt, so she was cut and is now sporting a black eye. Cool Mom!

A little unsure, but excited nonetheless!

Cheerleaders are always a plus!

She has some great connections with her Uncle Jay and she got to go down on the floor afterwards and meet some of the gymnasts.

Here is Addison with Morgan Dennis, who is Alabama's top gymnast. She is beyond awesome. Not the best picture, but...

On Saturday, John had to work and I had a photo session, but we went over to Mallory and Austin's new house for some pizza that night. The girls just love them. Addison frequently asks if we can go see Mal and Aus- she is so cute!

John just lounged in the chair and watched the Olympics.

Mallory left Addison play with her camera, and she wouldn't stop taking pictures.. it was so cute!

Mallory and Claire.. I definitely think they should work on one of these!

On Sunday, we made a trip to Target to look at some stuff for the house. I need to figure out what to do with my makeshift office, which is in the dining room. I need more storage. I may have to do a blog post and you guys can help me figure some stuff out. I love weekends where we don't have to do anything but what we want to do... we aren't homebodies at all, so it's nice to be able to say, "Let's jump in the car and go" Joseph and Tracie watched the girls while we went to Target and had a make-shift date night. I would much rather do dinner and a movie or dinner and a trip to Target than anything else.