the .1k

I have never participated in a .1k until yesterday.

It was an amazing event.

You can watch the race here but I'll warn you; even though its distance is short, the race itself lasted quite an impressive length of time.

There were a lot of people that had to cross that finish line.

You'll see a number of people who actually sprinted and raced.

Bill and I were in the slow mass somewhere in the middle. Our friend Jen T. joined us.

Next year, we're going to have an actual team! If you're interested in a .1k (the length of a football field), let us know. Join our team, "The Runs" (I insist it's a working title).

Before the race started something happened that I haven't heard since 9/11. The entire crowd sang along to the National Anthem. On the streets of Grand Rapids we joined together and lifted up our country in honor through song. It was touching.

And of course we celebrated the end of the race with a beer.

For Kevin and Kyle and their parents and friends who keep coming up with great ideas like a .1k!

little by little

Stamping is a dangerous hobby.

Not in the way that gets one hurt. No, in the way that it could be addicting. Although there is the risk of  a paper cut. I'm probably one of the few people who could get hurt while stamping.

Here's a sneak peak at what I worked on the other night. I was invited to a stamping party. We made nine Christmas cards and one Thanksgiving card. (I went to a party back in August and blogged about it here.)

I don't want to show you the Christmas cards because I don't know who the lucky recipients will be and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

I will say this, they are fantastic! I took pictures so, if I remember, after Christmas I'll post about them.

In the meantime I have decided that stamping is what one can do when they get tired of scrapbooking. I have made a lot of scrapbooks and I am running out of steam. It is really difficult to determine how many pages you'll use when you're scrapping about someone's life (Skylar). Her scrapbook ends when she turned eleven. I've not started one for Spencer because any picture we have of him is on this contraption (the computer/internet). The scrapbook for Bill and I also got too full before I could find a good stopping point. Right now it ends in 2009 and we've done a lot since then. I did manage to scrap our cruise all in one book (but the trip was only fourteen days, it was much easier to pick photos to use). I have one for the cats. I also have one for Halloween. Both of those will just randomly end when I run out of pages.

Stamping let's you be creative in the same way scrapbooking does. You're just not doing a page where you will add photos. You're doing a card. In some ways it's easier. You can make all the same card, or you can make every one different.

I have a lot of scrapbook ideas and stuff that I can use to make cards. I just need a few stamps and some ink pads...

soccer and the best niece and nephew

 These were taken back on October 13th. We were in Indiana for a wedding and we got to watch Skylar play soccer the next day!

She is really good. I know this is the back of her, but it was the best shot I got of her in action.

Spencer was all bundled up and he had fun hanging out with me.

Oh, Skylar's team won this game but they didn't win the tournament.

gobble gobble

While running this morning, I came across some wild turkeys that live near the creek in our extended neighborhood.

They were huge.

There were at least five, the others were back across the street. They ran off when I tried to take their photo.

This photo was as close as I could get/wanted to get to these three and was taken with my phone. My phone is not a smart phone, so I couldn't zoom in.

I think they know Thanksgiving is close.

oh to be back under the Tuscan sun

It was five years ago that we took our Mediterranean cruise. I never got around to posting all of the pictures on my blog (surprise?) and only got through a couple of days talking about it.

Now, five years later, I'm taking time each day to look at the photos that I carefully labeled and placed in albums.

Plural.

I took six hundred photos in fourteen days.

All of them are in three photo albums.

Then I made a scrapbook that highlights each day. 

We were in Tuscany on this day. We took an excursion to a vineyard. 

The story for that day was:

Jenny & I had to use the ladies room, so while we were doing that John and Bill were discussing the idea of bringing a bottle of wine with us to drink on the bus. It was a long ride back to the ship from the vineyard. 

They went to Diego (our driver) and asked him if it was okay to do that. He said yes and John went to go get the wine while Bill went to go get the "cups". (Cups because what else were we going to drink out of? The wine glasses from the vineyard?)

They met back up. Diego was standing over by the bus in a suspicious looking stance. He called John & Bill over to him. Cautiously they walked over to where Diego was standing.

Diego was busy wiping out four wine glasses that he had swiped from the vineyard! He told Bill and John that drinking out of cups was no good. 

When Jenny & I came out of the restroom, John and Bill were waiting to tell us their tale.

When we got back to the ship we took a photo with Diego and Simona (our guide) and our wine glasses.

Sadly, only one glass made it back to the States in one piece. 

I would post these photos, but they are on the back-up hard drive that we (Bill) have yet to connect to my laptop.