5 weeks in Michigan

Josh has been traveling a lot, and has more trips coming up, so o decided to head home.

I came home to enough packages I thought it might be Christmas!!!!

One of those packages was this beautiful fabric, designed by Minick and Simpson who Lives in Michigan!!! And this fabric line is based on Michigan.

I babysat my sisters kids and we went out to pizza and it was amazing... and we had a great time, see the shirt the older one is wearing, I handed that down to her, and my uncle handed it down to me... 

I got to see one of my best friends announce her second pregnancy!

I got to meet one of the members of the online quilt group I'm in :)

My parents took me out to an early birthday dinner since we won't be together for my real birthday and they gave me this book I have been wanting :)

And I got these two books, my first books of grad school.

I was able to see the beach and have a great day with my sister and 6 of my nieces.

I may have also gotten a slight sun burn because I missed a spot with the sunscreen... oops.

I ran a 10 mile race while I was home, I was so happy to run it, I have heard about it most of my life. It was a tough race,  but good. It was fun to run past places I knew. And the medal HUGE

And later that day my cousin got married and it rained the whole afternoon and it was cold.

Saw some good friends

And my parents went on vacation and left me in charge of the house.

And being a good daughter I mowed the lawn and picked the berries...

I also dyed my hair for the first time ever!!!

And I spent a lot of time working on my fresh quilt, but I didn't finish it sadly, mostly quilted though... I tried to get it done so I could give it to my parents for their anniversary... maybe next year.

I met a friend and we picked apples and ate donuts!!! I love cider donuts!! 

And tried to catch this snake for my parents to no avail, I think it's hibernating in the garage for the winter!!! Eek!!! I even set rat traps! They said they didn't catch anything when they got home :(

Which was a learning experience, I had never set a mouse or a rat trap before, so thankfully my brother had been over earlier and set up one of the rat traps, so I could use it as an example.

Met up with more friends and hung out

And finally, 

Headed home

Days 518 & 519

Yesterday Josh and I did some preparing for vacation and today to celebrate July 4th we ran a 5K with Josh's work

Mann + Hummel sponsored the run, it was fun,

my fastest 5K yet! under 30 minutes!

 

Day 511

Josh ran a 5k and I ran a 10k this morning, it was great, our friends ran too :)

Then we had a delicious breakfast

Day 496

The big day has arrived!

To run the 1/2 marathon, I woke up so nervous, and we headed out early to get ready for the race. We used the port a potties and lined up.

we were well protected as the guards armed with AK-47s stood atop most of the government buildings surrounding the start.

I was pretty happy at the beginning, this is just after the start line

I had done some research on the course, but hadn't driven or walked it, as we do not go to this end of town much. after the first relativley flat mile, as you can see fromthe picture below, the next 6K were straight up a mountain... over 500 feet of elevation gain...

at the top of the mountain I go passed by a couple women dressed similar to this lady, who is in a traditional mexican style dress and if you notice sandals! I also got passed by a monk... running in full dress and sandals as well... 

then after we ran back down most of the mountain, we got to run through beautiful downtown. I wanted the picture below pretty badly, i told Josh where to stand and thankfully I saw him as I was running up so I could dodge across the street so I would be in the picture :D

then we ran around the alemeda downtown (a park), and down a hill, and back up for 5K and finally back onto some flat road! just in time to come in for the finish, I was pretty exhausted by then I almost cried up the last 5K because I wanted it to be over...

and finally it was, I finished and chugged some water, and felt like dying, I couldn't find my friends and really wanted to use a potty again, my stomach hurt so bad, but really not until I stopped running, it didn't hurt at all while i was running.

so finally we found my friends, and we stopped to take this picture,I was still dying in this picture

Josh drove me home, and then I took a good 2 hour nap, and finally felt better! So I went to the sign to get my picture, like I had wanted to do after I finished my race, but there was no way I could have made it!

and then we ate tacos. 

The end.

Day 494

Today was packet pick up for the half marathon I'm running on Sunday. My first, I'm nervous, but I've been training.

I bought a bib off someone else last minute, so I didn't know for sure until a week or so ago I was even for sure running it, the bibs sold out in January, and at that time I have never ran more than a 5k...

A lot has changed,

We got lost on the way to the place, and we had to ask for directions in Spanish, thankfully we understood and got to where we needed to go!

They gave us these really nice mugs!

Day 468

When I started running in Feb with my friends here, I said, I run 5ks, and nothing further. One of the girls was training for an upcoming 1/2 marathon and asked us to train with her, I said sure, but I'll only do the short runs, next thing you know, I'm running 8 miles, and signed up for a 15k. Now I'm not fast, but I'm not really slow either, 3 of my friends are faster than me, and 2 about the space speed.

We lined up at about 7:30

And Josh headed out on the course with some of the other husbands to take pictures.

About 9k, I'm pretty tired, since this stint is all up hill

Crossing the 10k timer

About 14k entering the stadium

And almost at the finish Line!

We all made it! Even with the rain, it was pretty good.

My official time was 1hr 37minutes 6 seconds

Average pace of 10:22, not bad at all

Mr was not impressed and instead decided to sleep on my workout clothes

Day 459

Today I went for a run with my new water bottle, it's giant

Day 447

Today bright and early I ran the color run with my friends

This is my first color run!

It was fun!

I finished at just over 32 minutes, not a great time, but not bad for my first 5k in Mexico

Day 446

Today we picked our race packets for the color run.

We also got our shirts.

Things I learned today, I am not Mexican shaped. This is a woman's large.

Fits at the shoulders, but waaaay to big at the bottom

Days 443 & 444

Catching up on chores, and I went for a run.

Furthest I've ever ran. 8 miles, my feet were unhappy...

Josh has also been away for a couple days... Mr is taking over his spot.

And I laid out my king sized quilt to baste tomorrow.

It was too big for my sewing room, so I had to put it in the living room.

Also because it was so big, and I had bought the full sized quilt backing and I didn't want to iron it one tiny ironing board strip at a time, so I laid it out on the floor and ironed the back, then I ironed the batting and finally the top, it worked out pretty awesome.