3 Day - Post 2

Just in case any of you want to get a jump start on your donating(before I annoy it out of you)... I just added a link to the right side of my page for my upcoming 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk. Like I said below, once I get back from our trip...it's on like Donkey Kong.

-

Idol

Winner:David Cook

Here was my favorite moment:

I was surprised with the outcome, but not majorly. I am happy Cook won, however I would have been happy either way. I really liked them both. I'm super excited to see what they produce. I think I'll probably buy both of their CDs...along with Michael Johns whenever he makes one. He's still my favorite and I'm still bitter he left so early. But I LOVED the song he and Carly sang together:

My AI party was so fun!! Not a ton of girls came but I decided I'm glad because it was so fun with the smaller group. Thanks so much girls!! (I'm still trying not to dive into all of the leftovers!) Oh and remember when my DVR cut out? Don't worry...we didn't miss much:

3 Day

Most of you know I'm planning on walking the 3 Day Breast Cancer walk this fall. Before we moved, I had registered for the San Diego 3 Day. Until today, I had still planned on attending that walk. But since the walk is almost 24 weeks away, and since I want to do the 24 week training program, I signed online to get some resources and possible training buddies. After an hour on the site I have decided to switch to the Arizona 3 Day, which is the week before the San Diego walk. There are plenty of obvious reasons why I switched so I won't go into that. My main purpose of this post is to let everyone know that I will be doing this in AZ. If anyone wants to walk with me, I would SO love to have you. It is (obviously) 3 days of walking 20 miles a day for a total of 60 miles. The walk provides you with food, tents, cots, etc so all you have to worry about is walking. I am SOOO pumped and excited for this. Since it's getting hotter, I won't be training outside until it gets cooler, but I would love to have others join me and we can work something out. This is a huge commitment and I'm selfishly going to say I'm not going to wait on anyone. I am SO out of shape so it will take me a while to get to where I need to be physically and I really want to focus myself. This is the first year since I've been married that I haven't been nursing, pregnant, or taking care of my mom and I am so stoked to finally be able to do this. I'm starting to ramble...Anyway... We are going to Hawaii next week but as soon as we return - walking is going to take over my life! :)

-

P.S. Oh yeah... and I am going to begin vehemently begging for your donations so be prepared to fork out the dough. I'm totally serious. I will not stop until I receive some sort of donation from every person I know. Get ready.

Mckenna-isms

Kenna: MOM!! Emma just called me a macky out.
Me: A what?
Kenna: A macky out!
Me: What's a macky out?
Kenna: I don't know.

"Mommy can I go play outside because there's a pen - naydoe?" (tornado...in other words: it's really windy)

Idol

Best Moment from last night(it's still tonight!!): David A. "Sun Go Down"







Here's my mini-recap:



Round 1

David C. "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
I LOVED the beginning of this song. In the middle when it picked up I was really excited...and then a bit let down. I thought if the beginning was so great then the ending had to be stellar. Nope.



David A. "Sun Go Down"
This was another one of those times when I'm sitting on the edge of my seat by the end of the song because I'm so hoping the judges feel as excited about the performance as I did. Thankfully...they did. They said it was his best performance. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I did think it was awesome.

Round 2
David C. "Dream Big"
I actually liked this song. It didn't have the "wow" factor that most big finale songs do, but I thought it could make a great radio single.

David A. "In This Moment"
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz..... At least the beginning of the song. I just thought it was kind of a blah song. I thought David sang it super duper well, but only halfway through. Once the song picked up he started singing it like he meant it, and it ended up being really great.

Round 3
David C. "The World I Know"
I really liked this song. He was totally laying it all out there. His best performance of the night IMO. I did agree with Simon though in that I was surprised that he didn't sing Billy Jean or even Always Be My Baby. I've talked with two people recently(you know who you are) who have thought that David C. appears super cocky. I thought tonight presented a perfect example of why I think the exact opposite. When Simon called him out on his song choice and asked David if he understood what Simon was saying David said something about how he had thought of this competition as a progression and "why do something I've already done?" In this he could have seemed a bit cocky, but he then followed it up with, "No, but - for the record - I completely understand what you're saying." You could tell he didn't want to act like what he thought was more important than what Simon thought(as many other contestants have done...). I'll step off my soapbox now. :)

David A. "Imagine"
I think this was a great choice for Archuleta, but I don't think it was as good as it was the first time he sang it. He still beat David Cook.

Previous to tonight I said that I couldn't pick a winner because it was so close, and it would depend on tonight's performances. So after the performances: David Archuleta wins.

Can't wait for tomorrow! And "So You Think You Can Dance" starts on Thursday!

Blahbitty Blah

Here's what's going on in my brain right now:

• I have a love/hate relationship with this weather right now. While I LOVE going swimming in my 85 degree pool, I HATE going to pick up Emma from school in 110 degree weather. I'm just guessing that's how hot it is since my thermometer says it's 107 in the shade. Ken and I had a fabulous afternoon swimming and I can't wait for Emma to come home so we can go again. And David will be awake by then so we can all go.

• Did anyone watch House last night? Yeah...I had just about the best cry I've had in a long time. Ugh what a depressing show. At least Dr. House is still alive. And apparently husbands can be trained. Instead of making fake sobbing noises like he usually does when a fictional show is sad, Ian threw some tissues in my lap. What a guy, huh? Yeah, I think I'll keep him.

• We have a really old dog. I think she's 14 years old(the other one is a year younger). She's pretty healthy other than her poor hearing and weak back legs/sense of balance. However just a few minutes ago she started doing this wierd snorting thing with her nose and kinda shaking her head and wiggling her body...all in slow-mo. If it were any other dog I would think it was funny. But honestly...I sat there wondering, "Is this it? Is she going to die right now?" And I decided I don't think I could handle that. (She's totally fine, I have no idea what her problem was)

• Hey Queen Creekers...Come to my AI night!! If I didn't call you it's because of my stupidity....not because I don't like you. So come to my house Wed(tomorrow) at 7pm to watch the American Idol finale. And bring a snack or a treat to share! You can even bring a friend. :)

For Uncle Tyler

Tyler, we tried to email this to you, but the file size is too big!

Recipe Blog(part II)

I'm ready for my recipe blog(previous post here)! I hope you guys have been taking pictures of your favorite dishes! My only hold-back right now is coming up with a name for it! The few I have thought of are already being used by others. Any suggestions??

Finally

I finally finished my valences for my family/dining room. A while back I posted some fabrics and asked opinions because I was planning on making some curtains in a fun pattern. The problem was that I couldn't find any fabric that I liked in the right colors. So I settled on red curtains and found some napkins at Pier 1 that I just LOVE, and made them into valences. It's not exactly the look I wanted, but it's better that my empty windows. Here they are!

Walk 4 Hope

We had a great time doing the City of Hope Walk for Hope to cure breast cancer. I've had a couple people call me and appologize for not donating in time...but I have good news! You can still donate! You've got through the month of May before they stop accepting donations for this event. If you haven't yet, please click the link to the right of this post and donate on my sister's page. Remember, if you donate at least $35 you can get one of the great shirts than Shannon and Jed designed and Jed is personally screen printing. Thanks, and enjoy the pictures!

Team: Sandy's Hope

Fabulous Face painting. Emma saw a clown and followed her until she made contact and found out she was a face-painting clown. Score!

They also got some stellar balloon swords that popped before the day was through. :)

Pookie got tired.

My boys.

Mckenna made a friend.

"YES!!! I did it!" Emma was so proud of herself. She walked almost the entire 3k. Good job girl!

Each year they usually have a Post-It board where you can leave Post-It notes for survivors or in memory of those whose lives have been lost to breast cancer. This year they had a Papermate board and Emma was all over that. It was so sweet. I love how much she still loves her Grammy and remembers her. We miss you!!

Craft Fair in the QC

Don't forget to check out the Craft Fair tomorrow!

Family Scrapbook Studio
20892 E. Ocotillo Rd. Suite C101
QC,AZ 85242
Saturday, May 17 8:30am-11:30am

Whoa

I will warn you...this is a video that has some animals attacking animals. However, it has a bit of a surprise ending. Ian told me to watch it but held off on ruining the surprise. Check it:

Idol

*important announcement for AZ residents below*

Favorite Moment from last night: "With You"




It was just so refreshing to see him singing something current and fun. I didn't pick this for it's singing/song quality...I just really enjoyed seeing him see a fun, young song for once. If I were to go for quality I'd choose his performance of "And So it Goes." What a difficult song...he had the whole a'capella thing going on and emoted so much that that was really beautiful.



Dave Cook did well and I still really like him but I thought David A out shined him. Syesha also did well but boy oh boy that girl had better get on Broadway fast. I will be very surprised if she makes it past next week.

*ANNOUNCEMENT*

I am officially inviting any and all of my friends to my house next week for the American Idol Finale next Wednesday, May 21 at 7 pm. Please come!!! (And bring a snack.) Comment on here, give me a call, or email me of you can make it. And if you're one of my newer friends in the ward and I don't really know you well(like most people in our ward) I would love for you to come!

Vote!!

My friend, Rob Carona is a finalist for San Diego's 95.7 Next Big Star. I have some weird stalker fan obsession with his music. Go check him out(here too), and then VOTE!! Please!

Just for "kicks"

Yay for new shoes!!! Normally I wouldn't be so excited for a pair of running shoes, but these are no ordinary shoes...

Some of you may remember my post about my Plantar Fasciitis. Since that post I did get some new shoes, which helped. However, it never completely fixed my feet. Now, 8 months later, I have finally gotten a handle on them.

It took not only new shoes but stretches and exercises morning and night(with these and oddly enough - an empty bottle of air freshener), foot splints that I wear every night to bed, this article, and a complete lack of exercise. Ian even stayed home one Thursday and Friday so that I could stay completely off my feet for 3 days. And I am happy to report that they are finally better. I still get some pain in the afternoons and evenings depending on the day's activities, but overall they are so much better. But because I was wearing my shoes almost every day I really wore them out.

So I took a trip to Road Runner Sports in Tempe and was fitted for new shoes. If you've never done this I highly recommend it. My sister told me to do it last year when I bought my last pair, but the closest store was in San Diego and I didn't want to drive that far(it was a little over an hour away). They take a footprint image of your foot as you walk across a mat, they have you run on a treadmill and video tape it to play it in slow-motion, and they talk about your shoe needs. Once they have determined the type of shoe you need, they bring out a few pairs and have you try them on - including walking/running on the treadmill to see how you like them. So...after all that I chose these:

Asics Gel Kayano 14

They're awesome!! After I chose them, the wonderful saleswoman told me about all of the awards Asics' gel shoes have been given, including this particular shoe. Rather impressive. :)

Anyway, I wore them for the first time this afternoon and can't wait to hop on the treadmill tomorrow morning! Wish me luck!!

(P.S....does anyone else want to train for the Breast Cancer 3 day with me?)

(P.P.S...if anyone else has heel pain in the morning when you first get out of bed I have become quite the expert on this topic and would love to offer my experiences and advice because I wish someone had been more blunt and had more advice for me - before I let my feet get as damaged as they got)

Back with a Bang...or bite?

Wow...It's been over a week since my last posting. It's been crazy. I'll post pictures soon but I figured that since I left you all for soooo long(eye roll) I'd better come bearing gifts. So here you go!!





Speaking of Twilight...does anyone have the third book and not mind lending it out? I'd prefer to have it on CD so I can listen to it and be productive but I'm too lazy to find our library and figure that all out. So I'll succumb to the unproductivity that happens when I immerse myself in a book if it means I can get more Edward-action. Yum.