A Spring in My Step

Happy Spring, friends!  This is the glorious point in the year when things start to turn back around after a long and dreadful winter.  Dramatic much?  I know, but seriously, that's the only way to describe it.  Long and dreadful.

First, I'd like to wish a big Happy Birthday Weekend to the Queen of March - Big Lou herself.  We had reservations at the Cork 'n Cleaver that ended up falling through, but we will be celebrating in two weeks when they come for Easter.  Congrats to both Rob and Candace - Candace for being inducted into a nursing fraternity this weekend and Rob for officially becoming a supervisor at UPS.  Training starts tomorrow.  I am so proud of Rob for going to school and working hard at 2 jobs at the same time- I know that I wasn't supervising anyone when I was 21!  And now, from one supervisor to another, "God Speed, Rob.  God Speed.  May the Force be with you."

We had the.best.weekend!  I think the weather definitely helped with this.  We both took Friday off and I took advantage of the day by doing a little shopping in the morning.  The Johnson brothers came over later to watch a big Purdue NCAA win over Sienna and we grilled out.  They actually stayed until late that night, and before it was all said and done we watched about 12 hours of basketball.  I love March Madness!  My brackets were shot with the Kansas loss, but that's okay.

On Saturday we did our long runs at the gym, which for me meant 8 miles and for Brent meant 10.  I should have run outside because the hardest part for me is the mental struggle to stay on the treadmill, but I also notice that my legs hurt so much more the next day if I'm pounding actual pavement for that distance.  For next week's 9-miler I will have to run outside, because you can only hop off the treadmill to get a drink so many times.

We checked out Scotty's Lakehouse for lunch as a treat for making it through the runs.  It was typical Scotty's with more burgers.  I liked it, and might be adding "Try all 15 burgers at Scotty's Lakehouse" to my life list.  Nice.  This mentality and other poor eating choices could be why I ran 22 miles last week but didn't lose any weight.  It's a vicious cycle.

This morning I went to early church and then met Laura, Kirby, and Megan for breakfast.  We tried Scholars Inn downtown, which was awesome despite not having any water because of a break in a water line.  Or something like that.  All I know is that it forced us to order mimosas to drink instead of coffee, which is never an inconvenience in our book.

We have been lazy the rest of the day, which is how Sunday should feel.  We also got to celebrate another Boilermaker win tonight over Texas A&M!  Keep on winning!! 

Bonnie has been lovin' up this weather recently.  We've been letting her out by herself since the ground has hardened up a little bit (it's hard to keep a white dog clean) and she's had frequent play dates with Ellie, the Price Charles Spaniel from the cul-de-sac.  Ellie comes to the front door about once a day to see if Bonnie can come out to play.  They're very evenly matched in size and they could roll around for hours.  It's adorable. 

Spring also means the return of the neighborhood kitties to our porch.  Here's Bob Buttons in the window.  This cat's real name is Olivia, but she'll, uh, he'll always be Bob Buttons to us. 

We're working on painting/decorating our guest bedrooms and I started working on the curtains last night.  I love the material and hope they look okay.  Once again, I'm kinda just winging it even though I have two perfectly good patterns - and I have two copies of one of those patterns.  They look a little advanced for me.  Here's Bonnie the Helper.  Phew, what would I do without her contributions?

Speaking of home improvement, I added a new picture to our entryway display this week.  One day I sat down at the computer to quickly check Facebook, and before I knew it 30 minutes had passed and I'd ordered this sign.  It all happened so fast...

Sorry for the long post, but it's been awhile since I'd written anything of substance.  I think with spring and summer coming up I'll have a lot more to write about.  Adios, January and February!  Don't hurry back!