Visitors!!

We love having visitors! Our parents have been the most faithful, and Kevin and Naomi win the 'most dedicated siblings' award for whom, admittedly, the journey is a little easier than it is for other siblings. It's always kind of fun to show off where you live to the people you care about.


They got to see the new business school building (lucky!).

Got to be inside the fabled gates of Michigan stadium. Legally. No fence-jumping involved.

Got to watch an April football game and yell at refs who undoubtedly have summer homes in a certain "O" state to the South.

Good times!

Good times are a guarantee if you come visit us...or your money back! Siblings are especially invited.

Naomi Shoutout

The last time we were back in Chicago my sister-in-law Naomi helped me learn how to use some of the features on my SLR camera. I thought the results were pretty good. Maybe not worthy of National Geographic, yet, but still.




We even liked it enough to blow it up and put it on our bedroom wall, which was looking a little barren.



Thanks Naomi! For those of you interested, Naomi only charges $200/hour for photography lessons and gives a family discount of $20 if you are related and drive 4 1/2 hours to visit! It's all part of the "help Kevin become wealthy through his wife's sweat" plan.

Martian - My First 10k!

Yesterday I ran the Martian 10k in Dearborn, MI. Brian was planning on running the 5k, but he was still really sick yesterday. I still had a little bit of a chest cold, but I decided to run it anyway.

I rocked it out for being my first 10k! We started the run with the 5k group and as I watched them take the turn at their halfway point I was thinking that I had quite a ways to go still!

Since I'd been sick I hadn't run in a little over a week, but I was actually feeling okay. My knees started giving me trouble somewhere between mile 1 and 2. That wasn't a good sign since usually I can get past mile 3 without any knee trouble.

Right before mile 3 I took a Hammer Gel shot (which I'd never tried before). I was trying to time it so it would give me extra energy but wouldn't run out before the end. I had to take it a little bit earlier than I probably should have, but it helped me kick it out through the mid-point.

My knees were progressively getting more and more painful, but I knew if I started walking it would actually hurt worse than if I just kept running. I felt fine all over, except for my knees. I had to keep going though!

Right before the 6-mile marker (a 10k is 6.2 miles) I checked my watch and saw that I was around 57 minutes and I decided I wanted to get in under an hour. My final, official time was 58:38.1. That's a 9:26 pace. I was 25 out of 71 for my age group, 123 out of 361 for the females, and 358 out of 697 overall. I think that's pretty great considering everything that was stacked against me going into the race!

It was fun to see Brian and the kids cheering me on at the end, so I was actually glad Brian didn't end up running.

The aftermath of my knee pain during the race is less than stellar. I've been having a hard time going up and down the stairs because the pain is so bad. The physical therapist I saw a few weeks back told me that I need to do a bunch of stretching and strengthening to get my hip back in place (probably out of whack from having 2 babies) and that should help my knee. I need to get it taken care of or there is no way I can run a marathon - ever. I felt great otherwise though and wish I could go running again tomorrow!

Concentrating on the finish line.

I hate earbuds. They do not work in my ears. So what if I don't look "cool" with my headphones. :)

All done and about to replenish with a granola bar! (We got pasta from the Macaroni Grill on our way home.)