13.1 miles...what was I thinking???

I'm not exactly sure when I came up with the idea to run a 1/2 marathon. I honestly don't even remember when I signed up for the race. I do remember the last four months training for it though! Thanks to Dan for letting me slip out the door for hours at a time to run! He and the boys surprised me with this fab sign and the boys matching RUN MOMMY RUN shirts! We took a quick pic before they headed to school on Friday! :)
I started training in December all for the Nashville Rock n Roll Marathon held this weekend! Dan and I traveled down to Nashville on Friday morning to pick up my bib number and to check out the expo there. Here I am with my bib number!
We had a blast at the Expo and bought WAY too much. Since I was figuring that this was my one and only 1/2 marathon, I figured I better find some cool souvenirs! Once we were done shopping we headed back to the hotel so I could get everything ready for the race! I put my bib on my shirt and went to sleep EARLY!
We were up and ready to go by 5:15 on Saturday morning! Before we left though I wrote names of my family members on my hand with corresponding miles. I thought about funny stories or good times with each of them for "their" mile. It helped pass the time during my 2 hour and 37 minute run!
Here I am at the start! Glad we got down there early...they started the race at 6:45 a.m., 15 minutes early!!!
I was in corral number 23...I didn't get to start the race until about 7:25! But, here I go...well, I'm SOMEWHERE in here!
Not too happy about putting my back side up for all to see, but here I am at mile 3 plus! Dan even ran with me for a block or two here!
Dan was going to see me at mile 9 or 10 too, so I made sure to keep an eye out for him! Unfortunately, he stopped into a coffee shop and met a Boston Red Sox fan and chatted with him for a while. He was getting updates of my progress, but he read that I had passed the 10K mark (so 6 miles) when I had really passed the 10 MILE mark! Thankfully, Jackie called him and told him I was almost finished with the race! Dan ended up running (and getting a cab) to the finish line!
I was thrilled that I finished the 1/2 marathon...
but was a bit stressed that I couldn't find Dan. Thankfully he found me!!!
Unfortunately, the skies opened up and POURED down on us! We walked a bit (took in the sights of Broadway - and a quick picture of me and Elvis) but then ended up hailing a cab to take us back to our car that was at the starting line!
When we got back to the hotel I took a few more pics of my medal and bib...
...and then I took my shoes off to find this CRAZY blister! No wonder I was in so much pain for the majority of the race! UGH!
We showered and headed for home! We stumbled upon a Dunkin Donuts outside of Nashville and HAD to stop! I couldn't have been happier with my medal and a delish Coolatta!
When I got home I found a fabulously decorated house - thanks to Uncle Steve and Aunt Jackie! (Notice Buka asleep on the couch???)
Thanks to dad for writing this cool poem!!!
And to Mom for the beautiful flowers (they STILL smell FABULOUS!) And, of course, to Jackie for the delish freezer treats!!! :)
One last picture of my new magnet for my car!!! I finally got a 13.1 sticker! It is too cute too...black with pink polka dots!!! :)
Thanks to all for your love and support! I honestly couldn't have done it without you all!!!

Good Times At Trivia!

Last Saturday night we got together with a great group of friends and played a little trivia to support the boys' school PTO! The theme was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" so we were all dressed in our Cardinals, Yankees and Indians best! :) Here is our great team!!! We were table 1, but ended up coming in 4th out of about 30 teams...not too shabby!!!
Trivia night for me means nothing but hanging out and chatting with friends, eating some great food, and having fabulous decorations to make our table look rocking cool!!! Oh yeah, and we get pretty excited about the oral and silent auction items!!! (No further comment on that, though!) :)

Here are all the gals sporting our stylish baseball shades!!! Jenn, me, Jackie, Cindie and Ang!!! We had a blast...and even managed to help with a few questions! (Well, Jennifer helped with the MAJORITY of the questions...she is such a pop culture junkie, she is AMAZING!)
The guys on the other hand spent the entire night concentrating on the crazy questions!
All in all another fabulous night with great friends and great drinks...well, water and diet coke for me, since I'm training for my 1/2 marathon in two weeks!!! At least I had a fun cup to drink it out of!

Boys on a HUNT!

Every year since we have lived in our quaint little town, we have taken the boys to the town park the Saturday before Easter for an egg hunt. I can remember our first year, it was just Jack and now it has grown to all three of the Morra boys..even the middle one with the "faux hawk!"
We even added on a cousin - baby Henry! (He so LOVES to walk with some help, even though he can TOTALLY walk on his own!!!) Jackie and Steve surprised us by popping to our house when the egg hunt in their nearby town started earlier than had been advertised so they had missed it! On a quick side note...Henry made the front page of our town paper...a full color pic as he was eating one of the plastic eggs he found! Too cute and already a model at the young age of one year!
We all divided up since all the four boys were in different age groups. I went with Luke and since I had the camera I was able to get this "action" shot of Luke getting the egg. He only managed to find four eggs and even though, he required some "coaxing" from me to actually pick them up!
Here is Baby Henry on his hunt...notice Uncle Steve is holding an egg with his right foot while Jackie steers him in the right direction???
After all the hunts were over, it was time for the kids to check out their loot!!! They all got TONS of candy and fruit snacks!
Because it was SO nice at the park, we all opted to hang out there for a little while! The boys played the most on the big red train! Here was a cute shot of Nick!
After a while though, it was time to head home. Dan, Nick, Luke and Uncle Steve were all ready to leave...here they are heading toward the car.
Notice that Jack is missing??? Aunt Jackie had to pick him up and haul his bottom to the car! In this picture though, it looks like Jack is catching up to Aunt Jackie's height...and he is only 7! (I had the easy boy...Baby Henry!!!)
The weather was great and the eggs were abundant...thanks to the Evening Lions club who hide ALL the eggs every year!

A Quick Trip to MEMPHIS!

Last Wednesday - I have FINALLY (well kinda!) caught up with my blogging - my mom and I headed down to Memphis to help my brother Bryan with some overall life decisions! He is going through a divorce and simply needed some reinforcements...mom and I were thrilled to help!

We got down there after a not so quiet five hour drive - I LOVE how my mom and I talk every day, but still never run out of things to talk about! We met with his attorney on Thursday morning and then got to pick up my lovely niece, Alyssa Jade soon after! Of course she was THRILLED to see her daddy, and kept saying, "I missed you, Daddy!" but even better than that was the fact that she was loving on Nana and me too!!!
Bryan had to go to work that day at four, so Alyssa, Mom and I had a great girl's night out! Our first item of business of course, was shopping! We picked out 5 great outfits for Alyssa and 4 pair of shoes...it was too funny, b/c we just kept finding adorable little butterfly shoes - to match her face painting, and you know the saying, a girl can NEVER have too many shoes!

After all of the shopping, we were hungry!!! We headed to grab a bite to eat and Alyssa wanted to take a pic with ME!!! LOVE YOU, ALYSSA!!!
I had brought down a Beauty and the Beast jewelry box for her as she is such a girly girl and LOVES the Disney princesses. She wanted to find a butterfly ring, but EVERYWHERE that we looked, we just couldn't find one. So, when we stopped at the grocery store to get some juice for her we found rings in the little quarter vending machine! There WERE pictures of adorable butterfly rings, but after 4 or 5 tries, no luck!
Luckily, we also bought a chocolate bunny that eased the pain of no butterfly ring! Here she is in the hotel room with her new princess pjs and bunny! Could a girl be any happier???
Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to her on Friday so I could head back to my three boys!! Can't wait to see you both (sorry, Bry...you always get left out, but that happens when you have such an ADORABLE daughter!) on Memorial Day!

A WIGGLY Birthday!

Our little baby Henry turned one on March 24!!! After much deliberation and decision, Jackie and Steve decided to throw him a party theme with his favorite television and movie stars - THE WIGGLES!!!

Check out this banner that IT guy, Uncle Steve made with TONS of pics of Henry - one for each of the first 12 months of his life!!!
I counted 18 steps that he took all by himself...but he is much happier when walking with someone - as demonstrated here with his daddy!
Although he is walking happily with Daddy here, he is DEFINITELY a MOMMA's boy!!! See, it just happens...I have three of them at my house and I didn't purposefully do anything to create the attached at my hip boys that I have! Jackie has the same thing! Whenever she walks into the room, Henry's eyes turn straight to her and he attempts to get to her by any means possible...crawling, walking or screaming to get her attention!
Here is the birthday boy with HIS cake!!! He was a bit timid at first, but eventually got the hang of it!
After cake, it was present time! We got him his very first piggy bank, a fun Wiggles music playing book and this added onesie..."If you think I'm cute, you should see my AUNT!" LOVE IT!
Henry was happy for the ENTIRE party...even when we were playing dress up with him with Uncle Gene's hat...the binky helped his mood, I'm sure!
One last pic of Aunt Jackie and her three "original" boys!!! Even though she is a fabulous MOM to Baby Henry, she continues to be the best AUNT that my Morra boys could ever hope for!!!
Happy FIRST Birthday to my Henry Boo!!!

Let's Bowl, Let's Bowl, Let's Rock n Roll!

Our great friends, Camryn and Sydney turned 6 on March 14!

The birthday girls!!! I LOVE their shirts!!! Jack and Nick can't tell them apart, so they usually call them by "hey, twin," but surprisingly Luke always gets their names right! These shirts definitely helped out my two oldest boys!!!
To celebrate they had a bowling birthday party! It was GREAT!!! They had the entire bowling alley set aside for their big day!!! There were TONS of little boys and girls there to celebrate with them so the Morra boys were lucky enough to share a lane with Sydney!!! Here is one of the birthday girls - Syd - with Luke!
Here is Nick "following through" with his throw! I SO wanted to snap a pic of Cami and Nick as they have become quite the little love birds!!! Nick always says that he is going to marry Cam and she agrees...or at least she colors him pictures with hearts all over it! :) Their love is heating up too, as Angie - Cam's mom - told me that Cam sat on Nick's lap on the bus on the way to their daycare!!! Wowzers...young love!
After lots of bowling...over the two hour party, we only got ONE game finished...it was time for ice cream cake and presents! This is the only pic I got of Jack and Nick...not very flattering for either, but it's all I had...surprising, I know!
Thankfully, I had a better one of Luke and Dan!!!
After all the bowling fun was over we headed out to dinner with the birthday girls!!! Dinners are actually getting enjoyable with the five kids. We have a little hole in the wall place in town where the kids can sit at their own table while we adults get to enjoy a quiet meal! Overall a great day!

Fundraising Fool!!!

Dan and I participated in the Fight for Air Climb at the Hilton hotel in Springfield, IL in February. Our team of four - with our great friends, Bob and Angie Walter, managed to raise just under $3000! As it turns out Dan was the top fundraiser for the climb, raising about $1500 for the American Lung Association!

The PR person for the Lung Association called us and wanted to take our team out to lunch to present Dan with his award. Unfortunately, Ang was sick, so it was just Dan and me!

We really had a great lunch and even signed us up for next year...hope you are ready, Bob and Ang!!!

Here is Dan posing with his award!
Thanks to Lori for a fabulous lunch and even better conversation! She even agreed to take a quick pic before she headed back up to Springfield!
Congratulations to my hubby, Dan!!! Awesome job on your fund raising efforts...and your stair climbing abilities...he even beat me by 10 seconds!!!

Happy BELATED Birthday Nana!!!

Nana was sick and actually in the hospital for 5 days in early February with pneumonia, so we never had an opportunity to officially celebrate her birthday! We all got together though in LATE February to do so!!!

Here is Nana and her four grandsons! We sure did miss Alyssa - her ONLY granddaughter!
Aunt Jackie found this FAB necklace for Nana with all her grandkids' birthstones on it...very hip for this cool grandma!!!
No birthday would be complete without birthday cake...uh, I mean pie! Nana isn't much of a cake eater, so Jackie made her SECOND favorite kind of pie - cherry! Nana's fave is lemon meringue, but Jackie didn't want to deal with the meringue! Thankfully Nana was happy with the cherry!!!
Happy Birthday, Nana!!! We love you SO much!!!