Merry Christmas!

Well, Jane sent me some goodies and a little christmas tree/decorations to make my Pod a little more homey during the Holiday Season.  The Pod I call home is basically a 20' by 6' rectangular box split down the middle to hold two--I had to do some moving around to find a good place to put the decorations.  Here are a few other pictures to give you an idea...

                                                                Ahhh...  This is the life!

                                                                        Another angle  

As you can see, we do have power in the pods.  The wood "furniture" did not come with the Pod though.  I made it when I first got here.  It's simple, but it's practical and does the job.  I've tried to make this my oasis in the desert, my sanctuary, and my refuge from Iraq.  I'm very grateful I have it so much easier than many of the Soldiers in Iraq!  

Mad Dash

Okay...so 13.1 miles can never be termed a mad dash, but I thought it might catch your attention.  A couple weeks back I ran the St. Jude Memphis half marathon for the second time (you might remember my post from last year).  Rachel was nice enough to take care of my children for the weekend, so I could have a wonderful hiatus from single motherhood.  She deserves the real medal...thanks so much Rachel!  (Really, who thinks running a half marathon makes for a great get-away weekend...only us crazy fitness types, right?)  I have to admit it was wonderful to have a weekend break and to be able to rest for a day after the race before facing real life again.  I ran with a few friends from our ward here in Rolla.  We had a great time playing when we weren't running the race.

One thing I discovered...13.1 miles is never an easy run, no matter how many times you run it.  At least for me, it doesn't ever feel like it has gotten any easier.  Here are the pre-race pictures for your enjoyment...I will put the post-race pictures in another entry.

Lisa and Chris (all these pictures are in the lovely parking garage we parked in)

Chris dips Lisa (see how much energy we have before running 13 miles?)

Hilloah and Erik

Kari (my injured running buddy) and Scott (usually the fastest, but he stayed with us this race) 

Talk about fashion plate...love that headband...now that makes a statement

(and the statement is I that obviously don't care what I look like during a race)

The Girls

Dave and Brooke (Brooke was the non-runner in the group...I owe her thanks for these pictures)

The starting line before the race...see how excited we all are...there were about 8,000 runners (they capped the number for the first time this year at 8,000)

Putting up the Tree

Once again going back in time here....when we arrived home from our trip to UT (I could bore you with stories of how fun it is to travel on a plane by yourself with 3 kids...but you already know what that is like) the first order of business was decorating the house for Christmas.  We are lucky this year because we get to enjoy the decorations for far longer than usual.  Tom has requested that we leave them up for his R&R in late January.  So Christmas will be a much longer season in our home this year.  I managed to snap a few pictures of the kids hanging up the ornaments.  Our tree is truly kid friendly and many of the ornaments (if you could see them) are hung in nice little clumps low on the tree.  I managed to put a few of the less kid friendly ornaments near the top.

Thanksgiving

I was smart enough to realize on Thanksgiving Day that if I tried to take pictures during the family get together...we'd maybe get one or two in between fixing food, making sure the kids got some on their plates and ate it, and then of course eating what ever I could snatch up after that.  Consequently, I asked my niece Annie if she would be so kind as to capture some moments during the day.  It was great!  I wish I had her around more often.  Here are some of my favorites:

Hey Otis...let's play.

I love this dog!

Hee...Hee...Hee....that tickles.

YUM, YUM...Cousin Samantha and Reili start their meal.

Sweet Amberly....oh, oh, oh!

A table of smiling, satisfied family members. (Jared (my oldest nephew, flew down from Seattle), Katrina (my niece) and Jamin (her husband), Alison (my oldest brother's wife), Dave (my teasing brother) and Dianne (Dave's wife))

Kathy (my younger sister) and I harf down some food.  Check out that pile of sweet potatoes!

Baby Sarah Jane...Kathy's daughter and one of the newest in our family.  (See Tom, isn't she a doll...makes you want one of your own, doesn't it?)

My crazy nephews (Steven and Taylor) must have gotten a hold of the camera.  They took a few great shots similar to this one.  I love my family!

Finally back in business

Yahoo!!!  I totally rebuilt my computer software, so now I am back to the blogging world (I am sure you are all excited).  I had to back up everything (and it took like a week because my computer was working so slowly...slower than a snail on a bed of salt), then erase and reload the original software, then update it.  Well...it has been quite the process, but it is nice not to have to wait 10 minutes in between every mouse click.  And I thought computers were supposed to make our lives easier?  Well, now your in for a complete back track into our recent lives.  Enjoy!