first marathon

Last month I ran the Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon. It was such an amazing experience. The process started 4 months ago when I found out my sister, friend, and cousin were all running the marathon.  

I have done a handful of half marathons and the last one I did, as I was running the race, I told myself, "DON'T RUN A MARATHON!" at that point in the race I was so sure that running a marathon would be crazy because I was so tired and I hadn't even finished 13 miles. It has always been something that I wanted to do but didn't think that I physically could. I am pretty sure my sister believed in me before I believed in myself.

It was three and a half months of training. Here is my training schedule and cheerleader section I had posted by my bed to make sure I stayed on track. It consisted of 5 days of running and long runs on Saturday. I was able to complete almost every day until my knee started getting upset with me. Thankfully with help from a PT and my amazing chiropractor I was able to keep it under control. Well, and a little help from KT Tape. Towards the end it was hard to stay on schedule. My body was feeling old and tired. But I am so glad I stuck to it.

 

 

 

The night before the race I was fairly nervous. I still wasn't sure I could actually finish a marathon. During training I got up to 22 miles but felt pretty done at that point. Plus you never know how your body is going to feel and react on race day.

 

Here is a selfie right before the race started. It was a beautiful morning. Just perfect!! As soon as I got to start running my nerves totally calmed down and I was so excited to be running.

 

 

The race didn't necessarily go how I dreamed it to go. But I got the time I was aiming for which was under 4 hours and most importantly I really enjoyed the whole experience. At times my body felt tired but most of all I felt very thankful for having the ability to run. It was a very spiritual experience and I am pretty sure I was praying for at least an hour total during the race.

 

What really spurred me on was seeing my friend cheering for me on at I-90. Which if you know the race then you understand how awful it can be. It totally boosted my spirits. Then around mile 25 I saw my dad, who I wasn't expecting to see. It totally got me teary eyed. Then right before the big climb to the finish I saw my husband, my three boys, my mom and my best friend cheering for me. I felt overwhelmed for how the Lord had blessed me and booked it up the hill.

 

 

 

Once I crossed the finish line it was kind of surreal. I guess since I didn't have anyone there right at the finish line it almost didn't feel like I had just ran a marathon. Almost 4 hours of running and then I stopped. It was over. I took another selfie since I wasn't sure what else to do but I wanted to have something to look back on after what was a huge accomplishment for me!!

 

 

 

I ran the marathon myself but it was a team effort to have the time to train. A huge thanks to Mark for allowing me to take up evenings and Saturdays to train, my Mother in Law who sacrificed many mornings so I could get my run in without children, my sister, Amanda and Tricia who kept me accountable for my long runs and who motivated me, and my mom who watched the kiddos on a whim when Mark needed to work on the house.

 

I really want to run another one! :)

 



beams & vaulted ceilings

I am so excited that we got the beams installed. It looks amazing. The upstairs feels so much bigger and its going to be such an amazing space.

This was the downstairs before the post was removed and the beam was raised and replaced. 

Here are the temporary walls Mark had to build before the beam could be removed to make sure the joists didn't fall down. To be clear, that isn't Mark in the picture but his awesome friend who came to help. He and Mark get a lot of work done together and talk just as much ;) It's fairly impressive.

Once the guys cut the joists so the beam could be raised higher than the old beam and got the beam on the lifts, they slowly raised the beam. The pictures make it look easy but they still had to pound a sledgehammer to get the beam to settle into place, about 6" higher than the old beam. Makes for a lot of additional head room.

Here they are again cranking the lifts on either end of the massive beam.

Here is another view of the joists cut and the beam placement.

 

And Voila!! Since we increased the quality of the beam (it was the same size as we had before), we were able to remove the post that was in the middle of the floor.

 

Here is Shane walking the plank!

Basically the same process was done upstairs too. Mark built two more temporary walls to support the rafters.

Then they raised the beam and connected it with hangers.

Then the rafter were raised up and connected to the beam. Wow!! It makes such a huge difference.

 

Another angle.

 

 Next up, the stairs!

Luke's Birthday

I was only going to show our house projects on the blog but decided to share Luke's Birthday Party while I am at it.

Luke turned 3! He had a FISHING party at the park. It was a lot of fun even though it wasn't as sunny as I was hoping for. The kids looked adorable in their makeshift fishing vests.

 

 

LUKE CAUGHT A FISH!

SHANE BEING A FISH



PARTY CUPCAKES

 



 

THE LONE RANGER!

Now its back to work! Up next, the beams.

 

DEMO

Finally we got to start doing demo on the house. We had a structural engineer come out and let us know if and how we can vault the ceiling which was necessary before we could demo so that we knew if our plans of tearing walls down and moving the kitchen was possible. I was nervous waiting to hear if we could vault the ceilings because my entire layout of our house was based on that!

I feel like demo always starts off strong. It feels good to break drywall. There is just something about demoing that releases stress. But it does get tiring after about an hour or two, HA! Its not like the HGTV or DIY shows where all the demo is done right before your eyes while you are siting on the couch eating ice cream. By the time you are done with your bowl they have moved onto painting!

"Breaking Ground" Our friend Aeron was able to come and give us a TON of help with the demo.

Mark's dad is recently retired from his job but hasn't had much time "off" as he has been at the house helping with demo almost every day Mark is out there. He has a servants heart and we are so thankful for all his hard work. In the picture below Mark's dad is standing where one of the three bedrooms were. In front of him was another bedroom. That will be the new dining room and kitchen.

Finally a shot of Mark who has been behind the camera most of demo. He got all of the insulation out of the ceiling one afternoon. It was blown in insulation and lets just say a nasty job to get rid of it all. You don't want to breathe the air without a good ventilator. When I looked in the attic it didn't seem like it would be very much. But when he continued dumping it down I felt like I was bagging it up forever.

Luke really enjoyed helping break things too! Anytime someone hands him a hammer and the okay to hit anything in sight with it, he is a very happy guy.

It was crazy and hard to look at all the mess. There was a lot of time and energy spent getting rid of,

• 4 rooms and a flight of stairs of carpet  (with lots of staples and tack)
• duct work and furnace
• 6 walls
• most of the ceiling on the main floor
• insulation from the attic (definitely the low)
• flooring
• bathtub
• kitchen cabinets
• bathroom cabinets
• huge cast iron drain pipe
• electrical wiring, outlets, fixtures

We had a large dumpster sitting outside our house for about a week. I couldn't believe how full it was. The dumpster is gone but Mark has still made even more dump runs. I am happy to say that we are pretty much done tearing things apart.

Next on the list is installing a huge beam in our basement so we can raise the ceiling and get rid of a post. Then installing the beam on the main floor so we can vault our ceilings in which will be our living room, dining room and kitchen.

playset

In order to entertain the kids while we are there working on the house we invested in a play set from Costco. It's a LOT of work getting it all set up. First we had to remove over 150 sq ft of sod and lay a weed barrier down. Thankfully my sister and a friend came over to help us remove the sod and play with the boys. Also, a Dick's cheeseburger and beer is pretty much all I need to motivate me for hard work!

 

Finally, the play set came on a big UPS Freight Truck which was fun for the boys to watch. It took a long time to put it together. Miles and Luke wanted to help. But they enjoyed riding in one of the boxes it came in more than helping I think. Mark and I got a good start while my sister watched the boys, then a friend and neighbor volunteered to watch the boys and have dinner waiting for us. How awesome is that??!! Can't beat a cold Big Sky beer and Philly Cheesesteaks with salad or just any meal you don't have to make yourself. but it was a wonderful dinner and great company. We had a great start but still didn't finish. Mark and his dad were able to get the rest of it put together the next day and the boys were thrilled when they got to come back and play on it.

I am still not even quite done. I have the bricks down but still need to attach the weatherproof wood frame around against the bricks and then get a load of woodchips. There are so many projects and to-do's right now my head is spinning.  

 

Our special visitors

Since we have been going over to the house to analyze and draw up some plans on what we want to change, the neighbors have been stopping by and introducing themselves. They are all very friendly.  There are quite a few original owners on our block. It's great listening to the history and hearing about the 28 kids who used to live on our cul de sac!! Most of the homes were built in the 1960's including ours. Our next door neighbor has the exact same floor plan as our home (at least for now). What is great about our house is that the bones are awesome. Its a very well built home. During our first few days we encountered some fun "neighbors" Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.

Can you see them? They are kind of hard to spot.

Here is our backyard! We are in love with our backyard, minus the dandelions. It definitely needs lots of work too but we love having a large level space for the boys to play and us big kids too. Okay enough eye work, time to let the sweat start pouring down! To be continued...

Our Fixer Upper

We just closed on a home and I am very excited to share our sweat and our tears as we start on the path of remodeling. With three very young kids and Mark working full time I know this is going to be the hardest season of life yet. We are doing mostly all the work ourselves to save money and because that's just how we operate. It feels like we really started this journey in November 2014 when we sold our house and started looking for our next place to call home. I don't know how many houses we saw but it was A LOT. It started to get really discouraging and we started to wonder when we were going to ever find one that fit our criteria and our budget. But the Lord is faithful and after a bidding war with eight other offers, and a few new grey hairs, we got the house. Its EXACTLY what we told our agent we wanted before we even sold our first house. Our first plan of attack is to get a structural engineer out to see if we can vault the ceilings.

Here is our FIXER UPPER

 

I wish that I had a wide angle lens to get better pictures but these will have to do. 

Living Room




Current Kitchen (door to garage) and yes that is parquet flooring!





Bathroom (of course)

Hallway to three bedrooms

The downstairs is halfway "finished" but our main focus right now is to get the upstairs remodeled and then start down there. Bring on the late nights, coffee, cursing and red bull.  To be continued...