Trying to get back into the swing of things.

I have been keeping myself pretty busy these days. So busy in fact, that I have completely neglected my blog. I have spent most of my afternoons and weekends running in preparation for the Firecracker 5000. It is a 5k race on the Fourth of July on the Riverefront in Peoria. I am hoping to take home another award for a top 3 finish in my age group. Stay tuned. That, however, is not why I am so excited about the run.

For years Robin has kept up the mantra, "why run if no one is chasing you?" Well, I guess after a year of watching me she decided to see what all the fuss is about. A little over a month ago Robin went out for her first run. Since then she has purchased quality running shoes, excellent running attire, created a run playlist on our sansa, and signed up to run in the Firecracker with me. I think she has been bitten by the running bug just like me. I gotta say I am very proud of her and myself for making a convert.

On the home front we are making slow and moderately steady progress on the kitchen. We have all the cabinets repainted and new hardware. A few of the doors need to be planed down a bit in order to close properly. The wall paper is mostly stripped and the ceiling is cleaned for painting. Now we have to patch holes in the walls and ceiling, paint the ceiling and hang the new wallpaper. Once that is down we will tackle the floor and counter tops. We should have it all wrapped up by 2010.

In entertainment news the no satellite experiment is gong great. The kids do not miss the extra shows at all. They spend way more time playing together and spend more time outside. Most importantly we are not hearing the phrase, "I want that", after every toy commercial. Thanks to the website hulu and our computer we get to watch most of the shows we watched with satellite with the added bonus of limited commercials. This is the way to go for sure!

Nora is enjoying her summer off after first grade, and Nigel is enjoying his summer before the start of kindergarten. Nora had great final marks. She exceeded expectations in reading, writing and math. That's our girl. Nigel can read, draws very well and is very well prepared for school...thanks to big sis.

That is life here in a nutshell. I will try to keep you more up to date with our summer adventure.

Cheers