A Whole New Experience.....

As I have said in the past Memorial Day weekend for Chuck and I typically means a weekend full of old friends, camping out and pretending we can still hang like we did in college. Well this year, at least for me it was a bit different, but lets start with Chuck.
On Thursday Chuck and his friends went out to the Coke lot at the Speedway to set up camp! This entails, picking a "prime" spot, getting the blue and white striped tent set up, arranging the port-o-let, building a bar and beer pong table all in preparation for the 4 day bender that is about to take place. I don't have many pictures this year since I only went to the track for the pit stop competition on Friday afternoon, but other then the fact that Chuck was seriously disappointed his wife wasn't participating in all the festivities this year Chuck may have had one of his most favorite race experiences, he got to meet and hug his favorite driver of all time, Willy T. Ribbs.

Like I said, I did get to go out on Friday for Carb day and the pit stop competition. I do have a few pics from that!


I think I have posted that I have decided to make my own baby food. I kind of figure it isn't that hard and I can keep Hannah away from all the crazy additives that are put in our food as long as possible. So Mom bought me a food processor and we spent much of the weekend playing with Hannah and making her baby food. We started with Acorn Squash and realized how easy this was so then we moved on to Sweet potatos and apples! I took some pictures to show what we ended up with, my dad thinks I am nuts for doing this, but Hannah is probably super happy this food looks much better than that stuff on the shelves in the supermarket!



All I have been talking about is what Chuck and I did this past weekend but the biggest thing is Hannah turned 6 months old on Friday. Yesterday we went to her 6 month doctors appointment and the doctor says she is doing great. She did have to get 3 shots yesterday though and she was not so happy about that.
Hannah's 6 month statistics:
Weight: 17lbs 9oz (75%)
Height: 26 inches (60%)
Head: 17 1/2 in (90%)

Here are some pictures that I took this weekend, I also took some video that I will have to add later!

Friday is Hannah's 6 month birthday!! I can't believe it!! The past 6 months have just flown by and it is just amazing all the things she can do now!
Just look at the difference!






This is a big weekend that Chuck has been looking forward to probably as much as having Hannah!! Ha, it is a little different for me this year. My mom is coming to visit and besides a few quick trips the the track, I get 4 solid days with Hannah and Mom, I am so excited!! No agenda just fun and relaxing!! Oh and trying two new foods, I think we are going with squash and apples! I am sure pictures will be posted next week.

I love the weekends, especially the weekends that we don't have anything planned. Since there wasn't much on the agenda this weekend it ended up being a weekend full of firsts for Hannah. Pediatricians suggest starting foods at 6 months, Hannah turns 6 months old on Friday! Since I knew we had this weekend free I called the pediatrician last week to see if I could start solid food this weekend. I have decided to make my own baby food and after doing a little research I decided Hannah's first food was going to be avocado! High in good fat and fiber, plus really simple for me to make! So Saturday morning I mashed up a couple avocados, stuck Hannah in her highchair and gave it a whirl! I think she liked it!



Other then that Chuck, Hannah and I just hung out. I went to Babies R Us on Saturday and bought Hannah a bunch of teething toys and a sippy cup, so besides solid food we tried a sippy cup this weekend. She is actually pretty good at holding it and putting it to her mouth, she hasn't quite figured out that she needs to tilt it for anything to come out!



Well, its a race week, Chuck's favorite time of year! I made Hannah her first Mess t-shirt yesterday, I will post photos shortly....

Wow, what a fun but busy weekend!! This weekend was Casey and Emily's wedding, and it was beautiful! Chuck, Hannah and I went to Cincy Friday after work. Mom and Hannah hung out while Chuck and I went downtown to some fun wedding festivities. Friday night was the first time Hannah was put to bed after a bottle and Mom said it went great!
Saturday the wedding wasn't until 5:30 so we had most of the day to hang out. Since Hannah is in daycare all week long and the nights are rushed and she is sleepy, the weekends are the time when we realize how much she can do on her own now. It is amazing how big she has gotten and all the things she can do now. Chuck and I still haven't seen her roll over, daycare has seen her go belly to back and back to belly!



Yesterday was Mother's Day! I have to admit, I love being a mom, I am also going to admit that it is HARD and I now really understand why they have a day to honor Moms!! I had a wonderful Mother's Day and we also got to see my mom and Chuck's mom which was perfect. Yesterday morning I took Rudy for a walk, mom was playing with Hannah, when I got back from the walk, Hannah was in this! So great! Thanks for everything this weekend mom!!
She loves her Mommy!!!


Here are some more pictures from the weekend, I took some video that I will try to post later.

Well, the first 6 miles of the mini were awesome, I felt great, my legs felt great and the weather was perfect...then I took a drink of gatorade and it was all downhill from there. They say that you shouldn't do anything differently the day of the run than you did on any of your training runs and this year in the few training runs that we did we did not take gatorade with us. Mile 6 right after we stopped for a pit stop right inside the track (thank you IMS for providing something besides a port-o-let) I thought I was going to get sick and I could not recover....Poor Chuck, had to be miserable running with me, sorry hun, but he made the best of it and pushed me through to the bitter end!! I am very disappointed in the outcome but I have to keep reminding myself that I had a baby 5 months ago so I should be ok with it, and there is always next year!!

The first 5 miles we finished in 49:34 and that was even with a first mile that took us over 10 minutes because of all the people we had to run around!!! I'm telling you I can pin point the minute that I knew the rest of the race was not going to be pretty!

Finish time was a whopping 2:17:56

Besides the outcome of the mini the weekend was fantastic! We had lots of people over Saturday night to watch the derby. Plus it was two solid days with Hannah.

Well, it is finally here. I would say after all the training and time consuming runs I am very excited for it to finally be here because that is what I would say any other year but I have to admit I am scared for tomorrow! This shockingly has not been my best training year so I am really just hoping to cross the finish line tomorrow! I would really like it to take less time then the first year that we ran it, but that might be asking to much??

Here is our progression over the years

2004 2:35:27 11:52 min/mile (I chalk this up to a bad starting position and not know that you should never stop at the first set of port-o-lets, they have the longest line!)
2005 2:28:08 11:19 min/mile
2006 2:17:25 10:30 min/mile
2007 2:13:02 10:10 min/mile (Chuck blames this on 2 bathroom stops, his not mine!)
2008 2:16:52 10:27 min/mile (I was 10 weeks pregnant)
2009 ????????

The only guarantee tomorrow is a fun get together with friends and fun libations to boot! Cheers to a dry and fogiving mini!