This is how we do it

And the race is on!
This weekend we went over to San Ramon, CA to watch Ronnie run in his first 5K in 10 years. Make that his first race period in 10 years. Ronnie was a great runner back in the day; running long distance for track and field in high school. He was very competitive and one of the faster runners in the state of Maryland. He is proving once again, that he is a great runner. He went into this weekend with the thought that he would see how it goes and not run the race to try and hit a specific time, but to just try and hang as best he could with the other 800 Bah Humbug runners. He did just that. He came across the finish line at a strong 24min. and 56sec. We are so proud of him, for his first road race in 10 years, we think he did great. He is planning on running the first ever Eugene, OR marathon in April and is using these "shorter" races to train. He has his schedule all planned out to train for a good 4 months, with a 10K, and half marathon placed in there for practice. We are rooting for him all the way! For those of you who know Ronnie, when he makes up his mind to do something, you better believe he will do it. He is well on his way!

This week we also decorated our Christmas tree. Yes, the infamous freshly cut, great smelling, beautiful, Oregon Christmas tree is up and decorated. We love it! It was a bit difficult getting all of our decorations to fit on the somewhat dainty brances, but we did it, and we think it looks beautiful!

Another highlight this week was Madison's birthday celebration at preschool. It is fun for the kids, their teachers make a big deal out of each birthday; they get to decorate a crown to wear, sing happy birthday, pass out a favorite treat, and receive a present from thier class. Most of the kids bring cupcakes to pass out, but not my Madison, she wanted Jello Jigglers (which she calls jiggly jello). I am not sure if it's the Mormon in her or the fact that her mommy doesn't make it very often but this kid loves jello. She had a blast passing out red and purple star shaped jigglers to all her classmates. All the kids ate them up and requested more except one little friend Serah, She wasn't too sure what to make of the brightly colored jiggly star that sat before her. She poked at it with curiosity, resulting in the funniest little face (caught in the picture to the left). Maybe she has never visited jello land, uh...I mean Utah. Don't worry Serah, I think the stuff is a bit odd myself.

Madison has been enjoying her birthday presents. This week she received Grandma Chapman's birthday package in the mail. In it contained the coveted Bella Dancearella. For those of you who are not privy to the Bella Dancearella world, let me explain. Bella is a cute little girl on a DVD who teaches you how to do ballet, dance like a pop star, cheerlead, or Madison's wish, dance like a princess. The Bella Cinderella comes with a dance mat, wand, ribbon, and duster. You dance and sing along with Bella as she teaches you how to dance like Cinderella. It is really cute. So, being the good mom that I am, I tried and tried to get this for her this year and was unable to find it anywhere in California. It was no where to be found, it wasn't even on the internet except on ebay and it was selling for 50-65 dollars (retail is like 30.) So, I asked my mother in law to keep an eye out for it in Utah. After searching some more and figuring that it wasn't to be found in Utah either, I gave up hope. However, I had bought her one a while back and gave it to her friend for a birthday gift because it was VHS, not DVD. I had promised Madison at that time that we would buy her another one on DVD without realizing the task it would be to find one. I was feeling a bit guilty so, I decided to swollow my pride as a mother who would never pay that much for a silly toy, and I bought it on ebay, yep, I paid 50 dollars for the darn thing. I know what your thinking, what a great mom right? Or some of you are thinking what a dumb mom. Well, it gets better; within an hour of clicking the "buy now" button on ebay, my mother in law called and said that she had found it in Utah! No joke, literally less than an hour. So, I quickly wrote an email to the nice ebay seller who thankfully let me "return" it at full price. Yeah, it gets even better. So my mother in law sends this package with other items for Madison's birthday and just our luck, it never shows up! Yeah, after all that, it didn't get here! We think that someone knew the prize that was inside and snached it. I thought I was going to have to email the ebay lady again and beg for a return on my return. But, Grandma saves the day again and finds another one, which, finally made it here safe and sound. So there you have it, the crazy Bella Dancearella saga. And it was definately worth it, Madison loves it and has nearly memorized each dance and song. The things we will do for our kids!

And last but not least, we were able to go to see the last live performance of Creeping Lovely. It is a band that my sister's boyfriend Robb plays in. They are a small group with huge talent. Robb plays the guitar, his friend Miriam sings, and they also have a Cellist. Miriam is moving back to Ireland at the end of the year and thus, Creeping Lovely will be no longer. It is sad, they have great music and are fun to watch. We wish Miriam the best and know that Robb will keep playing on, at least for his number one fan who is a mere 4 years old!

We are looking forward to our friends coming to visit from Arizona this week. They will be staying with us for a few days while we show them around San Francisco. We will be having many late nights watching the office and chatting for hours on end. Hope you all have a great week!