Weekly Photos

Today I uploaded all 200+ photos I have taken with my new camera. In a week. I know. But, to be fair we had a couple really nice days this week so I couldn't NOT use the fantastic outdoor light. Plus, we had  the Kid's Taekwondo ceremony and Scout Sunday at the church. Perfect places to play with my new toy!

If I keep this up I may do a weekly photo post of my favorite photos. Please, if you know anything about cameras let me know if you see anything I could have done better. I used the auto focus on all of these, I think. I was playing with the manual focus for a while, but I don't think there were them.

 I know this one has too much sun on the side of his face...but it's oh so cute!

 I think he wants to do Taekwondo like his brother!

 My speedy kid!

 This was a zoom in from across the field. Used the awesome 55-250mm lens.

 Found a feather at the beach. I was up on the boardwalk and used the big lens again.

 My favorite shot. I have to figure out how to stop the blur!

 Yes, that high kicker is MY Kid!

 Last time wearing his Brown Belt.

 NEW RED BELT!

The Kid also ran his first 5K on Saturday! In about 33 minutes!!

This was taken by me with Hubby's iPhone.

 Reading a line at Scout Sunday at the church.

 There were about 13 kids playing in the neighborhood today! We enjoyed the weather so much!

 By far my favorite shot of the Kid so far! He was just walking toward me and I picked up the camera.

FUN!!

This was hard to catch! They were going totally opposite for a while, but they finally started swinging together. Doesn't that mean they are married now?

To MCM or not to MCM?

One year ago I signed up for this little race in DC. You may have heard of it, the Marine Corps Marathon. Yes? But last year I got plantar faciitis in the middle of the long runs, and I missed a few so I bumped down to the 10K. My husband and I went down to DC with 2 of my girlfriends and had such a fun weekend. So much fun, we want to do it again. Hubby was so excited a month ago. The race is on his 40th birthday this year. He said he wanted to get more friends to come do it, but now he is all wishy washy. I don't think he recruited anyone. My BRF (best running friend) KC wants to do it again. Registration started at 3pm last Wed, 5 minutes before my older son gets out of school. What bad timing. Last year was noon. We were going to try anyway.

We got in!!! The MCM sold out in 2 hours 41 minutes. That's INSANE! But, we are in.

Right now I am training for this little race in NJ on May 6. I did another 8 mile run on Sunday and did 5 on the boardwalk on Tues, and 3 on Thurs. I am right on schedule. A full is a big step, but I am up for the challenge. Tomorrow I am going for my 9 mile training run, in pieces. First my running group is running 6 miles...and then we are doing a local 5K. Crazy? Probably. Luckily, it is in the town I live in and the 5K benefits Hubby's fire dept, so we'll know everyone. The best part is that my 7 year old is running it too!! He did a 2 mile run last month and has been begging to do a 5K.

My family after the 2 mile Beach Run

the Baby was a great cheerleader!

Yes, we were wearing shorts in Feb. In NJ. It was a really nice day. 

I had already ran 6 miles to do 8 total for training that day!

Now that I have the new computer I have downloaded ALL my pictures since Feb 2011 into it. I can't wait to just go through and write posts based on my pictures. Fun!

And just for fun here is a picture of me and my family on my 35th birthday this January. 

My mom, me, my grandfather, my dad and my kids. 

This is my dad's dad. He is 85 or 86 years old. I forget. God Bless him.

My kids are so lucky to have 3 great-grandparents....

ok, here is one of my mom's parents in Florida when we went to surprise my grandfather for his 80th birthday in January, just days after my birthday!!!

My mom's parents. Gram, Pop and the kids. He is 80 and she will be 78 in June. Love them!

Fixer Upper

So, not only am I still screwing up blogger, I am trying to get used to this new computer. Here is what I wrote, so you don't have to try to figure it out...You have no idea what I went through to figure out how to cut and paste a picture when there is NO right click on the mac mouse!




*Pretend Picture of Ms. Cannon here*


She is my new BFF. I have wanted a DSL camera for years and my wonderful hubby said, go get it. I ran to Costco to snag it! I have a Cannon Rebel Xsi from college when I took a photography class in 1996...it uses FILM! I used it the whole first year of the Kid's life (2004) and realized I was spending a lot of money on film and developing. Since then I have owned 2 little point and shoot waterproof cameras over the years. My latest is starting to show it's age. It never takes a nice picture with the flash inside anymore. It's takes wonderful pics at the beach and water parks and anywhere else outside where I will never take Ms. Cannon.

Also on our plate is the need for a new computer. Our old PC has been running very spastically lately, sometimes it wouldn't even turn on and just mock me with it's awful beeping. I was almost ready to cry. I have years of pictures on there of the kids. We backed it all up on an external hard drive, but I have no clue how to get them out. We went to Best Buy last week and have been mulling the idea of switching over to the iMac. After very careful consideration, we went to get our new pretty Apple today.


*Pretend Picture of Mr. iMac here*


I feel like we are just living like the other half live. LOL!! To be honest, we paid about half price for the camera...with the cash back awards and the reason we went to Best Buy for the iMac was because they offered the credit card with 18 months of no interest!

I am so thrilled to be taking real nice photos again. I've been using my droid phone for the past year and all 2500+ photos are still sitting in the phone, and no where else. Tomorrow I am going to figure out how to transfer them to the new mac. Plus I have a year of photos sitting in my little Pentax waterproof camera that I have been afraid to download on the old computer for fear it would crash and I'd lose them all. Our old computer lasted 6.5 years old...a dinosaur in the PC world. I am told Apples should last 10 years...well, in our world that will probably stretch to 20, hopefully! 

New Toys!

I got a couple new toys this week. OK, get your mind out of the gutter. We got electronics...oh wait, that still sounds dirty. Teehee.

It's still very surreal. Yesterday I went to Costco with our 'free' money from the cash back awards from our Costco card AmEx and got this beautiful new addition to our family.

Canon EOS Rebel T2i DSLR Camera with 2 Lenses, 8GB SD Card, Gadget Bag, DVD, & Mini HDMI She is my new BFF. I have wanted a DSL camera for years and my wonderful hubby said, go get it. I ran to Costco to snag it! I have a Cannon Rebel Xsi from college when I took a photography class in 1996...it uses FILM! I used it the whole first year of the Kid's life (2004) and realized I was spending a lot of money on film and developing. Since then I have owned 2 little point and shoot waterproof cameras over the years. My latest is starting to show it's age. It never takes a nice picture with the flash inside anymore. It's takes wonderful pics at the beach and water parks and anywhere else outside where I will never take Ms. Cannon. Also on our plate is the need for a new computer. Our old PC has been running very spastically lately, sometimes it wouldn't even turn on and just mock me with it's awful beeping. I was almost ready to cry. I have years of pictures on there of the kids. We backed it all up on an external hard drive, but I have no clue how to get them out. We went to Best Buy last week and have been mulling the idea of switching over to the iMac. After very careful consideration, we went to get our new pretty Apple today. I feel like we are just living like the other half live. LOL!! To be honest, we paid about half price for the camera...with the cash back awards and the reason we went to Best Buy for the iMac was because they offered the credit card with 18 months of no interest! I am so thrilled to be taking real nice photos again. I've been using my droid phone for the past year and all 2500+ photos are still sitting in the phone, and no where else. Tomorrow I am going to figure out how to transfer them to the new mac. Plus I have a year of photos sitting in my little Pentax waterproof camera that I have been afraid to download on the old computer for fear it would crash and I'd lose them all. Our old computer lasted 6.5 years old...a dinosaur in the PC world. I am told Apples should last 10 years...well, in our world that will probably stretch to 20, hopefully!

January recap...and a memory run

January was a good month for me.

First of all I turned 35. 35 is also my hubby's badge number...and he got his promotion to Sergeant this month!! This is the year for the 35! I got to have a little trip down to some 80+degree weather in Fla. And there is still no blizzard in Jersey! I'd like to have a little sledding snow, but not be stuck in the house for 5 days like last winter.

I ran 37.5 miles. (Look! There is a 3 and 5 in there. LOL!) Last year I did much more, almost 75 miles, but it was a month before my first half marathon in New Orleans. So I had a few long runs. And it was much much colder last year. We had a few 60+ degree days here in NJ this past week! It's been amazing. Now I have a cold. Of course.

I ran one 5K race in Florida. That was so fun. I was thrilled beyond belief when I crossed the finish line and saw 29:04. A PR by about a minute and a half! But, then I stopped my Garmin and realized the course was 2.96 miles, a little short. But it was still a 9:49 pace and maybe I could have gotten a PR. So I am quite happy with that. But, I am still searching for the sub 30 PR for a 5K.

I signed up for a few little races: I think I already mentioned the NJ Half in May. But I am also doing a local 2 mile beach run in Feb, another 5K in March, Runapalooza Marathon Relay, and the SL5 three weeks after the half. I have nothing lined up for June yet, but July has the Jersey Girl Triathlon! This will be my 3rd time doing it and I have a few new friends to do it with! I'm so excited. I love doing races. They do get expensive, but they are ALL for good causes. They are for Special Olympics, local FD and First Aid Squads, local recreation departments, local battered women shelters...places I don't donate to on a regular basis, but get to, because I run.
Plus, I am planning on signing up for this little race in DC in Oct.

Most important, I have an group run on Feb 11. And I hope that anyone who may stumble to my little page go over to Beth at ShutUpAndRun and read about her cousin in Montana who went out for a run and never came home. The response to her virtual run has been amazing. There is a page on facebook, blogs have been linking to it for weeks. There will be people running/walking all over the world. All. Over. The. World. For Sherry. For a mom. A teacher. A runner. Hope you print out her race bib and reflect how lucky you are that you can get out there and run, walk, bike, whatever. Just keep moving.

My new motto:
Don't think. Just go.

Florida Surprise!

So, my mom, me and the kids flew down to Florida on Saturday to SURPRISE my grandparents. My grandpop turned 80 this month and they have been married 59 years this weekend. So what better way to celebrate than risk a heart attack.

The weather is amazing! We've swam in the pool and gone to the beach. And enjoyed the company of my wonderful grandparents.

We coordinated our visit for when 2 of my cousins were going down. So we knew my grandparents had no plans. They came down last night....with a huge boo boo. They accidentally booked thier flight for Ft. Lauderdale instead of Ft. Myers. LOL! Luckily they rented a car and my grandparents didn't have to drive for 6 hours yesterday to get them while we were here. Although, they didn't know we were coming.

Anyway, we got here and my grandpa was pulling out the driveway, so we blocked his road and just started waving. He said he was thinking "Who the hell is this crazy bitch?" haha! Little did he know. They were completely shocked. So FUN!

And the surprises aren't over yet!

My Aunt, her boyfriend and another cousin came down today on the auto train. We are now at my grandparents waiting for Pop to come back from Target for the next surprise!! heehee.

And tomorrow night, we are taking them out for dinner with my grandparent niece (who lives nearby) and her husband and daughter. I have just been bursting with excitement for WEEKS!

Just hoping for NO heart attacks!!!  oxoxox

420 Months

So I have figured out that when I post from my phone it does not give me paragraphs, like I intended. Just long run on sentences. Plus the links I posted didn't come up as links. Sorry. I guess you'll have to cut and paste, just this time. Of course it had to be a most serious subject. Here is Beth's latest post. My heart is still broken for all involved. Please be safe out there my runner and biker friends.

Then I had to figure out why I couldn't see everything in blogger on my dinosaur computer....enter Google Chrome. Apparently I missed the day when google announced that if you don't get chrome, you don't get to play with the good stuff anymore. I guess that explains why my gmail was so wonky. ugh.

Now I guess I have to post from the computer. Which should be good. Maybe you'll get some pictures. But, you'll probably still get a few crazy paragraph posts from my phone while I am out an about.

Here are my boys from July '11.

See. I told you they are getting way too big!

My 35th birthday is today. I've been getting birthday love all morning on text messages, facebook, emails. I love technology! I'll be going for a nice easy 3.5 mile run today. After my 7.26 (what!?) mile run on Sunday, this will be cake. mmmm cake. Then, I'll be heading over my very favorite nail salon to get a pedicure. They also give awesome massages while you are waiting to dry. Can't wait! Tonight, I'll be having dinner with Hubby, the kids, my mom, step-dad, my dad, step-mom and my grandpa. Fun!

This should be a fantastic year. 35 is my Hubby's favorite number. It's his badge number. It's what he bases everything on. If he has to cook something in the microwave for 30 seconds, he does it for 35. If a bill is $120, he rounds it up to $135. Seriously, he's a bit crazy. But, that's ok. Hoping this is his year too and he gets the promotion this week he's been working SO hard for. *crossing fingers!*

Now off to fill my day!