31:16

This was my time this morning when I ran my very first 5K. Not a 5K race, mind you. That would be madness. One of the girls in my TPS spouses' group went out with her GPS and found an awesome route around our neighborhood that equals 3.1 miles or 5 kilometers. I ran it for the first time this morning and, man, it was hard. I mean, I knew it would be hard, since I'm only used to running 1.5 miles at a time (what we had to do in AFROTC), but to keep going for twice that long - well, let's just say I'm gonna be hurtin' in the morning. I went online, though, to try to get some perspective as to how bad my time really sucked by looking at 5K race results and, as it turns out, my time was just about average! I can deal with average! So my plan is to put a cool sidebar table or whatever on my blog so that I can keep track of my times plus be held somewhat accountable since other people will see my progress. That's my plan...but for now, I'm going to go take a nap!

Vote, You Will!

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but I am a closet Star Wars geek. I love it! I was only a month old when Star Wars came out (1977) but I distinctly remember my dad taking me to The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) in the movie theater, which would have made me three and six years old, respectively. How cool is that! Anyway, the USPS is coming out with a fifteen-stamp Stars Wars pane in honor of the movie's 30th anniversary (and yes, do the quick correlation in your head - I'm turning 30 is less than a month! Augghhh!) and is allowing you to vote on your favorite individual stamp, which will be made into its own sheet. These will be available May 25th. You can vote everyday so vote, you will!

http://www.uspsjedimaster.com/main/splash.html

In the meantime, here is Aaron who happened to go trick-or-treating as Baby Yoda last Halloween. Isn't he cute? This is the picture that I had taken at the YMCA. Did I mention that I LOVE my new photo scanner?!?

See, He CAN Be a Good Helper!

Aren't They Cute?**

**And by cute, I mean sitting on the couch together and not trying to kill each other. This is happening only because 1)Aaron's most favorite DVD in the whole world is playing on the TV and 2) he has food and Reagan's wants some!

Strike a Pose!

This is my beautiful niece on Bill's side, Lilly, who just turned four years old last Sunday! Look at her working the camera! Nice!

Then there's my son:


Grandma and Grandpa Q, you must be so proud!

New Toy!

So I've figured out that the way to get presents around here is to leave my husband and go out of town for a few weeks. Aaron and I have been gone for close to three weeks visiting family in Missouri and Texas, and when I got back I had a new toy waiting for me - a Photo Scanner! I've wanted one of these for a long time so that I can upload pictures to my computer that I took pre-digital camera, i.e. prior to November of 2003, which wasn't that long ago!

I have wanted to show off this picture that my grandmother gave me of my mom. This picture is dated September of 1956, which would have put her in the five/six-month-old range:

When my Granny gave it to me, I was struck by how much Aaron, who happened to be about five months old at the time, resembled her. Finally some resemblance to someone! Here is a picture of him at that age:

Freaky, right?

Stay tuned for more uploads like these. I have tons where this one came from. Until then, here is something to hold you over. Daddy at, I'm guessing, three or four?

Can you even stand the sweetness?

He's Signing!

Aaron has finally started mimicking the signs I have been trying to teach him for about eight months now. I don't think he knows what they mean or when he's supposed to use them, but I'm hoping that will come with time. Check him out signing "more," "please," and "thank you."

It is also interesting to note that Aaron looks like he's trying to do the sign for "water" right before he does the sign for "thank you." I've never taught him that one. He may have picked it up at the CDC or something.

Lazy Tuesday Afternoon

Look at me spread out on the couch watchin' T.V. like I own the place!

By the way, that shirt? Size 24 months so the belly will not be exposed. Those shorts? Size 12 months so as not to fall off the waist. My kid's a tall, gangly freak!!

This is for you, Aunt B

See? You should watch more Scrubs. It will only make you smarter (or at least harder to fool by Dad).

Just Call Us "Hollywood"

Almost two weeks ago, Bill, Aaron and I finally made it down to L.A. to do some sightseeing. We were really only killing time waiting to check into the hotel Aaron and I were staying at in Burbank the night before we were flying to Missouri. The only thing we really did was drive around with a very poor map to guide us, but I feel that this is the best way to start to get to know a new city - to get yourself somewhat lost.

We started out heading west on Mulholland Drive (having recognized it because I thought it sounded familiar as the name of a movie?). This was a scenic drive through the Santa Monica Mountains and we stopped at a very nice park to take some pictures:

The views from this park were awesome; it looked like you could see the entire city. Did you spot the Hollywood sign behind Aaron in the first picture?

We then turned south onto Coldwater Canyon Blvd and ended up driving through Beverly Hills. No pictures here but just know that those houses did not disappoint. They were awesome!!

From here we reached Sunset Boulevard and headed back east. We didn't stop anywhere but just drove around to get a feel as to where things were at. Here are a couple lame shots through the back window of our car of cool places on Sunset:

Chateau Marmont (famous hotel of the stars; also where John Belushi died)

The Laugh Factory

March Mustache Madness

I loathe facial hair on a guy. I don't know what it is, but I just can't stand it. I thought I was taking care of this problem by marrying someone in the military. I was wrong. Apparently, the Air Force allows mustaches. I'm not sure why I wasn't aware of this; I've been married to the Air Force for 8 1/2 years! Anyway, Bill's TPS class thought it would be fun to see who could grow the best (or worst? I'm not quite sure.) mustache during the month of March. Gross! I thought I would do weekly photo updates so that you can suffer along with me.

So, here you go. Week 1:

Five Things I Found Disturbing About Tonight's Episode of Scrubs

1. Dr. Cox's bald head. What the crap?!?

2. Turk's transplant utters. That one's gonna give me nightmares.

3. Janitor's flatline device. So wrong.

4. The Todd's four-story atomic wedgie. Still makes me hurt and I've seen that episode about 40 million times.

5. The lame Friends-like montage of old clips that made up about 95% of the episode, yet NBC still passed it off as "new." Whatever! It would have been funny except my Tivo records six reruns of Scrubs a day on three different networks, so I saw all those clips, like, last week!

Sleeping Perpendicular in a Parallel World

'Cause that's just the rebel that he is.