Saturday & Sunday!!

OK, seriously get a cup of coffee or tea for this blog.

Here we go... early Saturday morning I got up. I got up at 6am and did my 4 mile run. (I had gotten off work 2 hours early the night before cause I knew we were having an early long day Saturday!)

Kent was having one of his "People to People" meetings today in Lacey, WA- so far away! These meetings are for his upcoming trip to Europe in July! We are getting so excited for him. The meetings are kinda long cause there is so much information to go over. The meeting started at 10am and was to last 4 hours. All the kids had to bring a dish from the country they were going to visit to share with the group for lunch. Kent chose a Greek fish dish with coriander seeds. Here's Kent, with Jade's help early Saturday morning getting the fish ready to cook...

Now at the meeting. Here the kids are divided up into groups doing activities given by the teachers to help build relationships among the delegates, and also learn team building skills. Kent and one other student also got a prize for completing all their online quizzes they are required to take before they go, quizzes that have to do with stuff dealing with the places they are going to help familiarize them...

The kids will also be having to wash their own clothes in Europe. And the teachers are telling the kids they do not want to bring jeans cause they are heavy and take a long time to dry. To illustrate this for the kids visually they all had to bring a pair of jeans to the meeting, soak them in this tub and then throw them around to see how heavy they were, then hang them on this rack out side to see how long it would take them to dry... they did not dry in the 4 hours of the meeting. I think the kids understand to not bring jeans on the trip!

All the different foods the kids brought, Kent's fish is on the bottom left- and it was really yummy!After the meeting, we drove the kids home... Kent was exhausted!He's so cute when he's sleeping...

After leaving Lacey, we drove the kids all the way home, then headed all the way back out to Redmond. Why, do you ask? Well, we were in on a surprise for our friend Maranda's 31st birthday party! There was 10 of us including Maranda and her husband that met at a fancy little Italian restaurant in Redmond for dinner. Maranda didn't know we were all going to be there except for one other couple! Here's Maranda and her husband- isn't she a cutie?

Not so cute eating that squid tho Maranda! LOL! Gross! Some of the group...Jeromy and my dinners! They were really good I tell you what!So you may be thinking, that's a long way to go for just a dinner, and you'd be right! There was more to Maranda's birthday surprise! We were all going to the Chris Tomlin Concert that was in Redmond!!! Maranda had no idea until the end of dinner that we- all 10- were going! That was tough to keep quiet for the last few weeks, I'm not very good at secrets or surprises! Chris Tomlin is one of my favorite Christian musicians/bands. I have been wanting to see him in concert for a while, just never worked out time-wise, but this was perfect! Here's our tickets...Here's us in the traffic jam trying to get to the concert...Here's Jeromy and I keeping our cool, doesn't matter what Maranda's pictures show of me looking angry as they drove by us taking our picture LOL!!!We were a little late, and missed the opening band, but I didn't really care about that. We got there at the intermission about 5 minutes before Chris Tomlin got on stage- perfect timing I'd say. And I was getting tired people. Remember my day started at 6am, and now it was after 7pm.... but still having fun...Live action baby!Thanks for letting us celebrate your big day with you Maranda! Happy 31st!! Half way thru the concert, an amazing speaker Louie Giglio (hope I spelled that right) spoke for a while. He describes himself as an astronomy geek. He spoke of the awesomeness of our God who breathes out stars so big that our minds can't even comprehend the size. Did you read that right? He BREATHES OUT STARS into existence. Yet He loves us so much. We are so small- in this gigantic universe, yet He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for us, if we would repent of our sins, because He loves us so much...it's just so hard to comprehend. It was a great message...The concert ended at 10pm and we got home about 11:40pm and went straight to bed.

We got up for church Sunday morning. Another amazing sermon by our Pastor Kevin talking about Heaven and Hell and end times- fascinating people- and it's all straight out of the Bible! After service there was a Sunday school meeting for all teachers and assistants. Jeromy, Jade and I all fall into that category so we stayed after. They provided lasagna, french bread and salad for lunch for everybody and it was great. Kent got to eat, too, just cause he's part of our group!!

After church we went home dropped off the kids again, then Jeromy and I headed back out to run some more errands. Off to Costco, Albertsons and then to the video store. Jeromy wanted to watch the new Narnia movie. Also got Jade some new socks she needed. She was happy- can you tell??

Kids were also asking for some Nutella (it's a hazelnut spread with chocolate in it) and whip cream that you roll inside of a tortilla. Again the kids were happy....Here's a close up of Jade's new bands on her braces. Kinda hard to see but they are pastels in yellow, purple, pink & blue. They remind me of the pastel colored M&M's for Easter. Cute little face...Jeromy and I's original plan was after everything was settled, we were going to go out to the Out Back for dinner, just he and I to celebrate his B-day since we didn't get Out Back last week cause they weren't open when we went. Well, Jeromy and I were pretty tired after the last couple of days, and Jeromy just wanted to stay home and have steak at home for dinner. I didn't argue too much cause I was pretty tired... was looking forward to that bloomin' onion but my pajamas sounded pretty cool, too! And just look at the flank steak! I'm not a big meat eater, but this thing was DELICIOUS!!!!!Jeromy also made asparagus (Nasty- I had corn!) and both kids like it!So we ate our yummy dinner watching the new Narnia movie. I don't really care for them all that much. I mean, they are good, just not my type of movie, but the special effects were pretty awesome!

OK, onto week #3's training for the Half Marathon starting tomorrow...

Monday: 4 Miles

Tuesday: Cardio

Wednesday: 5 Miles- yikes!

Thursday: 4 Miles

Friday: Cardio

Saturday: 5 Miles- yikes again!

Sunday: REST!!!

Over and out!!!!