First Dinner Party.....

A couple of weeks ago, Shannon and her roomie, Cassie decided they were ready to test out their "hostess" skills. What better guests to try them out on than us! Scott, Holly and I went over and had a great time.


The hostesses....

They set a really cute table...
One of our favorite pasta dishes was cooking, some bread, and salad...




The guests were there...
After dinner, Scott and Shan broke out the Wii. They always seem to get the Wii out when they are together. That brother/sister competition is too hard to pass up.

Look at this concentration!
And, of course....there's ALWAYS dessert! Yum!

The girls have this quotation on their wall....I really couldn't have said it any better.

Thanks so much ladies! We had fun and left with full tummies!

Spokenya Run

Scott and Holly belong to a great church called Life Center. Their church has adopted a town in Kenya and they are trying to help provide a well and ways to have clean water to this town. The church sponsored a 7K run as a fundraiser this morning. We could not have had a more beautiful morning!

Here we are before the race getting our numbers on.

Timing chips on...very important to get those correct times. You never know who might win!

It was a beautiful 4.3 miles for the run. A couple spots along the way were a little hot...the steepest and longest hill happened to be in the sun but they had a water spot waiting for us at the top. Great planning! We ran through some beautiful shady places behind the community college. (I didn't get any pictures during the run. Scott convinced me to leave my camera in the car.)

Holly did great! She pretty much ran the whole thing! She ran it in 44 minutes! You go, girl! She said she only walked a little bit of the hill. We didn't see any one running the hill when we were going up it! Scott did awesome, too! He is a great bike rider but hasn't run a lot. He ran the first mile non-stop with me and then we decided we probably ended up running half of it by the time we were done. Our goal was to finish in about an hour and we finished in 52 minutes. Way to go, Scott!

Our after shots....

Definitely want to do more of these with these two and maybe we can talk Shannon into joining us!

Baby Birds!

My dad built a bird house for me and I have it hanging over my little patio in my backyard. Every year, I have babies and they are so much fun to watch. This year I was able to actually get some pictures of them.

Two little beaks....

Feeding time....

Waiting for feeding time....it's a big world out there....

I think these two got up on the wrong side of the nest today...they look a little grumpy!

Momma knows how to make them happy....

Finally, this morning I was making my coffee and I heard their little chirping voices. This usually means feeding time. I looked out and couldn't believe what I saw! All this time I thought there were only two babies....they were out and trying their flying wings. Sooo stinking cute! Count them...there are 8 (including one still in the house). I think a couple were the mom and dad. I love the back and white one on the post. There's also a cutie peeking out from the middle of the fence.

Spokane Indians Game June 30, 2010

This could also be called "Cheryl/Jackie" time! We just need that every so often. This time it was at the Indians game. It doesn't seem to matter where we are, we have a good time and we talk the whole time...about anything and everything!

When we got to the game, we had to go to Will Call to pick up our tickets. The window cracked me up. At least we couldn't get confused about which line to get in.

When we were inside, I was just thinking about telling Jackie that some of our former students were going to be at the game and there they were!! Too funny! They are great kids with great moms!!

One thing that is wonderful about Spokane Indian games, is that you can never get bored. There is always something going on! Recycle Man was here this night...

Of course, Otto is always around to give out hugs.

or lead some cheers......

In case you were wondering, we were watching some ball, too. We couldn't help it. We were right behind homeplate. Jackie...you can be in charge of getting our seats anytime!!

Uh-oh...7th Inning Stretch...Look who's leading it....

We definitely got our money's worth. The game went an extra inning. We were glad it only went one. We were getting cold but it was worth it. We had a fun time.....and we won!

Wine Tasting June 18, 2010

What's a good way to start summer vacation? With a wine tasting! There is a really cool little place in Spokane called Rocket Market. Friday nights they do some sort of "tastings". My friend, Wendy, ran across this piece of information while reading the newspaper during lunch. Sign me up!We signed up for the first Friday of Summer vacation. They were introducing wines from Spain and Portugal and were serving a few little snacks. It turned out to be a beautiful night out. We sat outside on a covered patio.

We "toured" Spain and Portugal through 10 tastings starting with a Champagne and ending with a port. My favorite part, tho, was the company!

My teaching partner, Sheila, and me!

Another teaching partner, Wendy, and Sandy. We are trying to convert her to drinking wine!

A great night with great friends!

Father's Day June 19, 2010

Father's Day was a quiet day but very nice day. Dad, Mom and I spent it together and I really enjoyed it. Scott and Holly were in Seattle for her sister's wedding and Shannon was working.

Mom and Dad invited my over for grilled steaks and baked potatoes....whose holiday is it?? This is my favorite meal!! They knew I couldn't resist!

I love hanging out in their backyard. It's so pretty. Just look at some of their flowers.

While we were waiting for dinner, Dad had Patsy Cline on his mind. He didn't think he had any CD's of her so he dug out the old "LP's"...that's right...the vinyl! We went retro! Too much fun! We listened to Patsy Cline and Ray Stevens! Anyone recognize this machine?
The only thing dad said he wanted for his birthday was a small ice cream cake, one that feed 2 people. That is much easier said than done. After a little searching, I discovered that Cold Stone Creamery made Ice Cream Cupcakes. They were sooo cute! I think we would have liked a little more "cake" in them, but the ice cream was definitely yummy!
So, I managed to miss taking a picture of dad on his day. He wasn't too disappointed about that!

I will get him next year!

May 30, 2010 Half-Marathon!

The day finally came! The Couer D'Alene Half-Marathon was here! 13.1 miles. My friends and I were actually doing it. We all had different goals, but we were all going to finish it! When I had first decided to tackle this goal, I had dreams of running the whole thing. During my excitement for training for it, I over-trained one week and injured myself. With the help of physical therapy, I was still able to do the race and finish it. My goal changed tho. I hoped to finish under 3 hours.

Here we are before the race. Don't we all look so pretty and ready for the race!! 13.1 miles...here we come! Deanna, me, Sheila, Wendy, Jackie and Susan! Team Medical Lake!

Apparently, a lot of other people wanted to run the marathon, 1/2 marathon or 5K as well. We really lucked out. It was the only dry part of Memorial weekend. The rest of the weekend was VERY wet.

We had our running shoes and our timing chips...ready to go. (I was wondering how much money was in shoes at this race....most serious runners spend an average of$100 on a pair of shoes.)

Look! There's Matt! He's our PE teacher and my partner coach for track. He reminded me to go slow at the start....I didn't listen. This is my problem. This is why I am in physical therapy. :) I should listen to him. He is an expert runner! He runs the whole thing...and then some!

Jackie took this picture of me. It's after the turn around point, probably just before the 8 mile mark. I had probably run about 6 and half miles at this point. Things got challenging after this....still fun, but challenging! :)

Here's Deanna. The runner is our group! She did great. She ran the whole thing...even without her Ipod working right! She beat her goal. She ran it in 2 hours and 5 minutes!

Here we are after the race...maybe not looking quite as pretty as when we started..but look at those smiles! (Yes...I couldn't wait to get my shoes off!)A couple days later at work, we had to wear our shirts and our medals proudly. After all...it's all about the shirt and the medal!

This was definitely one of the hardest things I've done, yet one of the best things I've done. I definitely want to do another one!!