Don't worry I'm still here!

Hey everyone. Sorry for the brief delay in the day to day updates. I've had a LOT going on lately! First let me say it's like 12 degrees or something and I'm looking out the window and more falling snow. I am SO ready for next week's trip. Only a week from tonight Brett and Brian will be arriving and we'll be taking off for St. John the next morning. But to recap what's been going on:

At lunch Friday I had the best run I've had in a long time. I ran 3 straight miles at a pretty high speed on the treadmill - no stopping to walk or anything and I felt like I could have even gone a bit longer if I wanted to (had to get back to work!). Now I know you are probably saying that's not 8 miles you fool and there was no hills. Well, that is true. I'll admit I'm not at the level I hoped to be by now. But I'm going to do the best I can, train all this coming week hard, and do my best and finish the race.

Friday, I got home from work and Ashley and I immediately jumped into our home improvement project - laying new laminate hardwood floors in our kitchen. It ended up taking us about 6 hours, but we finished it all in one night (not counting molding). Ashley was awesome and figured out how to cut out all the pieces to fit around doors and weird spots - including the completely rounded bottom of one of our cabinets. Although it took awhile and was killer on my thighs and knees (it was actually a good workout), it was really pretty simple to install the floor. Just locks into place and you go one row after another. We used my circular saw and miniature band saw to get the boards cut just right. Overall, we really like how it came out - check it out (one before and 2 after pictures):




Saturday we got up and went to Menard's to pick up molding for the kitchen and some other stuff we needed. We were able to almost finish the kitchen but still had to put a little more molding in and paint over some nail holes and stuff. At 2:00 p.m. we headed over to Petco for the Valentine's Day Pet Party with Pim and Essie. I know this sounds ridiculous, and it was, but hey, it's fun. AND, Pim beat out lots of other dogs and was a finalist in the "best kiss contest" so we won a free bag of pet food - not bad!! We went to Target after that to work on our wedding registery with Ashley's parents. This mostly involved Ashley and her mom walking around w/ a scanner gun picking out kitchen stuff while me and her dad sat on boxes of kitty litter and talked. When the gun finally died, we went over to Portillo's and picked up hotdogs to take back to our house. Ashley's parents were really surprised and happy with how the new floor looked. We were proud.

Sunday did chores around the house, finished the molding in the kitchen, went to the library, cleaned, and did other random stuff that kept us busy. It's been freezing cold and snowing and just crappy out so it was good to stay in the house. Our heating bills have been huge so we put up some of that window film on some windows. Hopefully that will help! Also, I spent a long time paying all my bills which is never fun at all...

Yesterday I was into work bright and early for a training on some new software. This is my final full week in my current position so there is a lot to get done and I'll be pretty busy. It's fun looking forward to my new role though and I'm already started on a few small things. It was coming down pretty hard and cold outside when I got home so instead of going to work out at the fitness center Ashley and I did a bunch of exercises at home in the house. I'll have to get back into 8 minute abs this week and leading up to the wedding so I am looking good!

Tonight after work, I'm going to go home to pick up my shoes and then go directly over to the fitness center to run - so I'll report on that tomorrow. Hmm... other stuff going on. Sent some pics down to Ella with the St. John Sun Times so it will be fun to see if she uses any for her article on the race. Also, Spencer from St. Thomas has visited and posted some good motivational comments for me on this blog, he has started something similar, and has information on his rental home as well as his boat, the Happy Hour. They both look great, and you can check out his blog here:

www.spencerusvi.blogspot.com

I also saw on the 8 tuff miles site he placed first in his age for the last "tuff tune up" on St. John. Way to go Spencer!! Other than ALL THAT, not much else going on. Got some wedding stuff to take care of later this week, and then next week is the trip! I can't wait. Hope everyone's doing well.