Country Music Marathon Results

They posted the results yesterday afternoon...
Shannon and I both finished at 2 hrs 37 min 58 sec.

Oh, and about the chill bumps I mentioned yesterday (which I thought were due to the experience)...this might possibly have been from heat exhaustion!! I also felt very lightheaded and my legs hurt (we even had to move off to the side and stretch for a few seconds)...I haven't had any of that happen during my training. I drank a lot of water for the last few miles...I've never wanted water so bad in my life!!! As soon as we finished, I had to hold onto Shannon to keep myself up.

Matt wants me to run it with him next year...we'll see about that :) I'm just glad it's over for now. But I'm definitely excited that he wants to do it...I think he'll do great (and will be able to beat my time...he mentioned wanting to do that) :)

I was a little sore when I woke up this morning, and felt even better after stretching...however, as the day goes on, I get even more sore!!! And my ankle is hurting worse than ever (I hurt it about 2 weeks ago)...I've been icing it and taking tylenol :(

Have a wonderful Sunday!!!,
Shanda

I finished!!!

I actually finished it!!! And I'm so glad it's over!!!

It was incredible, and awful!!! :) We've been training in cool weather for the past few months, so I didn't handle the heat very well. I wanted to quit at every mile, but Shannon helped me get through it!!! Thanks Shannon!!!

We had set a new goal of 2 hrs 15 min, but didn't make that. I was just so glad to see that finish line!!! We haven't received the results, so I'll post that at a later time.

We put Hebrews 12:1 on the back of our shirts. It was great how many people stopped to ask us what that verse was!!! Thankfully, Shannon was able to tell them because I didn't feel up for much talking.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hebrews 12:1

The bands and encouragement from the people watching were wonderful...really helped take my mind off it somewhat :) And the people with the hose pipes were such a blessing...I really needed that!!!

We found another verse recently that is awesome, too...

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." - 1 Corinthians 9:24

Most importantly, I want to thank the Lord...he carried me!!! I give him all the glory for my accomplishment today (and for putting people in my path to help me along)!!!!

It was an incredible experience...I had chill bumps the whole time and even shed a few tears!

Cute Hair!! :)

Mere's getting more hair on top, and we have so much fun playing with it!!!!

Her daddy gave her a little Pebble's hairdo, and it made us laugh!!! Here's some pics of it...she didn't want to take her finger out of her mouth (that's her new thing...it's constantly in there).

Meredith loves the bath again!!!

Meredith went through a phase of being terrified of taking a bath, but she loves it once again. She asks to take one all the time now :)

Here are some pics of Mere and Carter that I took on April 17th. We were over at Shannon & Matt's house and the babies decided that they wanted to take a bath.

2009 FIJI Pig Dinner

Matt and I attended the 2009 FIJI Pig Dinner on April 18th. This was my first time being able to attend (women are only allowed to attend every few years, and this was a special event as they were showing the new house plans). It was really cool to be a part of it...although, there's a lot of things they do that I don't understand :) and a lot that makes me laugh (when no one else is laughing)...

Here's a pic of us...



Matt with Brent (his first big brother (top row, left)), Jon (his little brother (top row, right), and his grand little brothers (and I apologize, I can't remember their names)...

Here's a pic of me with LeMarbre and Josh. I haven't seen them in so long!! It was so great to see them!!!

Yes, they really did roast a pig (thankfully, we didn't have to eat it)...

Another pic I took at the end of the evening...

This is Matt's fraternity, but it really does hold a special place in my heart. Because of it, we met!!! And I met some wonderful friends!!! I have such great memories of the FIJI guys, and going back to Cookeville for this event brought so many of them back.

Happy Easter!!!

Hope you all had a very Happy Easter!!! Our's was wonderful!!!

Here's a pic of Mere digging into her Easter Basket to see what the Easter Bunny brought her.

Meredith wanted to wear her pink cowgirl boots with her Easter dress...she was adorable!!! She also wanted to wear her pearls after she saw me with mine on. And she took her sweet little Kitty purse :)

Mommy and Daddy with Mere:

After Church, we went to Shelbyville for lunch. Meredith and Caitlyn had an Easter Egg Hunt, and we also celebrated Nanny Burrahm's birthday (her birthday is mid April).

1st Church Easter Egg Hunt

Meredith had her first Easter Egg Hunt at Church on April 11th. She did awesome!!!! She filled up her basket quickly and even helped others collect eggs.

We got her the cutest little Hello Kitty basket.

She was scared of the Easter Bunny, but I was able to get one picture...

She won a door prize, too...a Veggie Tales CD :)

Milk Allergy

Mere started developing symptoms similar to those she had when we found out she was allergic to eggs (and this time, she even had a small rash on her back). We looked through her food journal and didn't really see any pattern, and we knew she hadn't really had anything new. We started wondering if it was Milk...

We took her to the pediatrician, and she seemed to think that it could very well be a milk allergy. Mere already had a follow-up appointment with the pediatric allergist at the end of the month, so she suggested that we move up the appointment. She also said to try switching her to soy products to see if we could see any improvements.

We switched her to soy...she loved the soy yogurt right away, but it took her a while to get used to the soy milk. But we could tell a difference almost immediately. And her appetite increased right away. She never ate very much before, but after switching to soy it was like we couldn't keep her full! I was so glad she was eating more!! :)

I re-scheduled her appointment with the pediatric allergist for April 10th. Matt was off for Good Friday, so I took off to spend the day with them. It turned out to be a very yucky day! We weren't able to get outside to do anything fun...and actually we were kinda glued to the TV for a while keeping an eye on the weather (there were tornado watches and warnings all afternoon).

Here's a few pics of Mere playing at Dr. Partridge's office:

Dr. Partridge decided to start off with the scratch test (for milk only). She said if it turned out that it wasn't milk, we could discuss doing more testing.

When they do the scratch test, we have to make sure she doesn't touch the places for 15 minutes. Trying to hold the hands of a toddler for 15 minutes is so hard!!! I was so glad that Matt was there with us this time, because last time I had to do it on my own. Here's a few pics of Mere while we were waiting on the results:

We were right for a second time...poor baby!! :( It just makes me so sad for her that she can't enjoy things that other people enjoy!! And the older she gets, the harder it gets!!! The doctor is very hopeful that she will outgrow them both. We caught them both very early, and we are completely eliminating them from her diet. We have to be very careful in reading food labels, which we have been all along. We were given a listing of things to avoid...casein, butter, cheese, pudding, yogurt, lactulose, and the list goes on. Casein is the hard one...it's in a lot of soy products. We thought we had found some cheese that was ok for her to have, but it has casein in it. She's been asking for cheese, so we're gonna have to search harder.

Krista Lee Photography

Yesterday, we had pictures taken at Krista Lee Photography. Andrea took them (she's so awesome!! She also took our fall photos, and the pictures at Mere and Carter's birthday parties), and we had a great time!! The babies were a little fussy at first, but had so much fun running around and eating snacks (a little food always helps). A preview of their pics can be found at http://www.kristaleephotography.blogspot.com/ (link is also to the right under My Blog List). We should receive the disk soon with all the pictures...we can't wait!!


Here's a picture of Mere playing with Skylar on the way to the studio...

My sweet girlie girl :)

I decided to paint Mere's toenails on Friday. We were going for pictures on Saturday, and I thought it would be so cute to paint them pink :) She is such a girlie girl..she loved it!! She was so excited and was so good while I did it (just sat there eating her apple). When I was pregnant with her, I dreamed about the fun things we would get to do together one day...and one of the things I couldn't wait for was painting her little nails. This was so much fun for me!!! Enjoy the pics!!! :)

Weekend to Remember

Last weekend, we attended Family Life's Weekend to Remember marriage conference. It was wonderful!! The classes (and speakers) were great, and we had a chance to talk about things that we never would have on our own. We had a date night (which we don't take the time for very often), and spent the entire weekend together. We missed Meredith so much (it was our first time to be away, so we called several times to check on her), but with all the classes and "homework assignments" we were kept very busy. We really needed that time together!

The last day of the conference, we said our vows again. It was such a special moment! I love Matt more than ever, and am so proud of him!! (below is a picture of us after we said our vows). We totally recommend the conference, and will definitely be going again.



Thanks Mimi and Andaddy for keeping Mere for us!! She had so much fun!!!
And thanks Shannon and Matt for telling us about the conference!!

Here's a pic of all of us...