And here comes Miss Morgan Ann!

So the past few weeks have been crazy.  Baby Cole made his debut as you all know and this past Monday, Miss Morgan Ann Buttenob made her debut!  Keith is now a Papa of 2 precious little girls!  We'll be flying to Chicago with Hannah (Emily will meet us there) a few days after Christmas and we're super excited!  While I'm not exactly crazy about the thought of Chicago-cold temps, I have to admit, it will be nice to have "Christmas" weather for at least a few days. Of course, I'm going to have to do some shopping because I have very little in the way of cold weather gear!

We are especially excited to see how Miss Addison does with her little sister at home.  We've heard lots of funny stories already (Addie telling Morgan to go away, night night, etc).  As with many first born children, Addison has become accustomed to being the center of everyones world...and who can blame her??  :)  We're all confident that she'll be welcoming little sis with open arms in no time!

Here is a picture of beautiful Morgan Ann as well as one of Addison when she was just a few days old.  These two girls look very similar with the exception that Morgan showed up with a lot more hair than Miss Addie AND it's dark like her mommy.  

Many congratulations to Mommy, Daddy, big sis Addison and both extended families!!  I have a feeling Christmas at the Buttenobs is going to be pretty special this year!

Morgan Ann Buttenob

Addison Irene Buttenob - March 2011 on her way home.  :)

It's not a race. Maybe I'll race. I'm not racing. Do you mind if I race?

What can I say, my family knows me well.  I asked Keith & Hannah to do a local 5k with me b/c we would get free antlers in our race packet.  Annie let me know she would be interested in doing it too so I thought we'd have so much fun dressing up and sticking together. 

The day before the race, I was feeling good and having not raced since OilMan, started to feel the itch.  I talked to Keith about it and decided to think about it.  Hannah & I went to Wal-Mart to select our outfits and while there, I decided I was going to stick with them.  I called Keith & let him know I was sticking to the original plan.  

Annie stayed the night Friday night and we took her to GenuWine with us.  Two bottles of wine later, I was falling asleep and asking them to take me home!  I definitely wasn't going to be racing on Saturday and it was a late race start so what the heck!  

Annie & I got up Saturday, ran to Wal-Mart to get Keith's Santa hat and then ran to Starbucks where we ran into Kerry Gordon who was so sweet and bought our coffee for us (thanks again Kerry).  We picked up our fellow reindeer elf (Hannah) and then went to get Santa (Keith).  Stef & Avery decided to get out of the house and meet us there to cheer us on.  This was shaping up to be a great morning. 

Santa and his reindeer/elf mutants.  

We took a bunch of pics at the start and then started to line up for the race.  As I stood in line, I turned to Keith and asked if he minded if I ran ahead of them, he said "go for it" and Annie & Hannah laughed as both suspected I would want to do that (see, my family knows me well). 

I totally wasn't dressed to race.  I was wearing elf boxers with the crotch cut out to look like a skirt (tri shorts underneath) and a Hanes white tshirt.  I had antlers on my head no less.  I passed the antlers to Keith, hiked up my skirt, rolled up my sleeves and tucked them into my sports bra and decided what the heck!  No warm up either.  This would be interesting.

I ditched the antlers and started to hike up the skirt.  I meant business.  

Just like that, it was time to go.  It was warm yesterday, a lot warmer than my August race in Buffalo. There was only one water stop on the route and I think it was at around 2 miles.  I felt really good but honestly, had no clue what pace I was at.  I had no Garmin, no watch, nothing.  I was running strictly by feel.  I felt I had slowed down a bit and thought, no big deal.  I mean, I haven't done speed work in a while and even though running 3.1 miles isn't too tough, it's different when you're trying to run hard.  

As I turned back on to Lake Woodlands I decided to pick it up a bit and was surprised to feel great.  Turning into North Shore Park, I caught a glimpse of the clock and saw I was a minute faster than my August 5k and less than a minute off my PR which was in much, much cooler temps.  Not too shabby.  After a few minutes, I consulted the standings and saw I was listed in 1st place.  Well, that's nice.  Hey, small races are great for those of us who don't typically place.  :)

Me sitting patiently.  :)

What the heck just happened?

When Keith, Hannah & Annie finished, I let them know we'd be sticking around for the awards because I probably would never place again.  I sat very patiently, expecting my name to be called as the winner of the F30-39 a/g.  Much to my surprise, they didn't call my name.  I knew something was wrong b/c they had called Hannah as the winner of her a/g and we didn't think that was right but weren't 100% sure.  I went up to inquire as to what happened and they kind of blew me off.  I caught a glimpse of what they had listed for Hannah's time.....21 minutes and let them know their results were off as I knew Hannah was not that fast (no offense Hannah).  A few more folks complained and they finally admitted the results were off.  After about 15 more minutes, they announced the results again and I got my 2nd place A/G finish.  I was still happy although secretly thought the lady who got 1st looked a lot older than 38.  

The anti-climatic "Awards Redo" Presentation.  What about my speech?

All in all, we had the best time yesterday.  We laughed so hard at so many things and got to just hang out for a few hours.  After the race, Annie & I pampered ourselves with mani/pedis while Keith worked in the shop and Hannah returned to her mom's place.  A great, great day!


My mission today:  find more small races so I can place again. :)

Time sure does fly when you aren't "training"!

Ok, maybe that's not entirely true.  :)  I have sort of been training.  

So let's back up.  After OilMan, my awesome coach gave me a few weeks "off".  For the first few days, I did nada.  After that, I did easy stuff.  While on vacation in Turks & Caicos, I worked out every day mainly b/c I love to exercise and it was vacation and on vacation, you do what you would love to do at home.  :)  So I worked out!  Since getting home, I've got more structured workouts again and I have to say, I am feeling amazing!  

So much to be thankful for and so much going on.  I love Thanksgiving, it's my favorite Holiday by far.  The food, the family, everything.  It's more relaxed than Christmas in you don't have the stress of shopping and finding that one perfect gift.  You can just eat & visit with the family.  We got home at about 2am on Thanksgiving so caught some zzzz's before heading to the land of Sugar to celebrate w/ my family.  Keith's girls were with their mom and we would be having Thanksgiving with them that Saturday.  Both Thanksgiving celebrations were awesome!  Great food at both and thankfully, I didn't over indulge so I was able to fit in my skinny jeans.  Bonus!

Cole James Copeland

Kiri gave birth to her 2nd baby last week, Cole James.  Oh my goodness he's a cutie pie which is odd because he looks just like his Dad (hahaha, just kidding Derek)!  Kiri, my baby sister, is a mommy of 2!  I remember the day Kiri was born and getting a note at school letting me know she had arrived.  I changed her diapers, played with her, put makeup on her, took her shopping for prom dresses and all the other fun stuff big sisters get to do.  Man, I am getting old. I turned 38 the week before Thanksgiving and while I know I'm in the best shape of my life, I can't deny that I'm no spring chicken.  Boo hoo.

So now that Cole has arrived, we are (im)patiently waiting for Baby B 2.0 to make his/her debut.  Heather is having a c-section a week from Monday and we are dying to meet this little one.  Keith likes to call me "granny" every now and then (not very often at all, trust me) and I always remind him that I'm "just" his girlfriend.  It does kind of stink not having a cute nickname for Addie and her little brother or sister to call me but hey, that's ok.  Addie sure does say my name in the sweetest way!

Christmas is going to be awesome!  We'll have Cristian, Avery & Cole at my mom's and then Addison and 2.0 and Heather's.  Tick tock tick tock.  Not to wish time away or anything BUT, I really wish time would hurry up just a bit. 

Ok, so that's all I've got.  I haven't written in a while and I know this isn't a training post but it's my blog and I do what I want.  

Have an amazing weekend!!!!!