Tea...Tea...Tea...

I just got my shipment from Mountain Rose Herbs the other day. I love this place!! They have the best tea in the world & at such great prices!!! I bought a pound of tea for about $20. Trust me - this will last me for about a month or 2. It is huge!! Plus I am trying a few smaller sizes too. I've had Moon Ease (wonderful) and Dream Tea (love it - next big buy!!). Recent purchase included Lemon tea & one called Fidnemed Nighttime Tea. This one was a bit bitter for me - I think I will have to mix it with another tea.

Plus they sell herbs too. I bought a bag of Stevia leaf to add to my loose tea and the price was reasonable. Only $9.00 for a pound bag. Stevia, if you did not know, is twice as sweet as sugar. No need to add to my tea anymore!! No more extra calories there!!

Take a look at the site, there is something for everyone!!. Also - if you do decide to order, please go through my site for I am now an affiliate with them. Enjoy!!!

Kicking & Screaming

Today has been a very crazy day. First off, my peanut Sarah has decided to wake up at the ungodly hour of 2am. This would not have been so bad if she hadn't woke up the previous night at 4am & the night before that at 3:30 am. I have no idea what has gotten into her. I turn Blue on for her & attempt to sleep on the couch - but she doesn't take that too well. Soon enough she is whimpering for me. Thank goodness she is so cute.

Then Emily comes home from gymnastics this afternoon preparing to go out to enjoy a beautiful day. She forgets that she was "grounded" for an hour for her sassy mouth last night. To add to that I find that she & her buddies gave the basement a "post-war" makeover. (this after swearing everything was nice & clean...."pinky-promise") So for the next 2 hours the drama unfolded within our house. Needless to say for all the tears that she shed I think she only cleaned 1/8 of the area. I was not going to break today. I did give her a break to calm down - in which she went straight to her sister's room & promptly fell asleep on the bed. This bites!!

On a more positive note. We finally got our tomato plants today. We decided to order our plants from Burpee this year. Eric is pretty excited to get them in the ground. He has this silent competition with our next door neighbors for the most productive garden. They kicked our a$* last year!! Huge zucchini's - amazing. So this year he started early prepping the gardens (we have 2). Today I got some manure & peat moss for him to get planting when he gets home. I'll some before & after shots & post them.

The lower garden is strictly tomatoes this year. We will have about 7 plants in there & a few patio plants also. The upper garden will be for cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant & peppers. I decided to plant pole beans around our deck in the hopes that they will grow up onto the deck. We'll see. Well off to get the little one up!!

Thank you for your support!!

I wanted to thank all of you who had donated to my fundraiser. The Children's Hospital of Philly is such a deserving place for your donations.

Since the diagnosis of Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome for my youngest daughter Sarah, we have been there often. All of her specialists are at CHOP and I wouldn't think of going anywhere else. The doctors & nurses are the best & this is coming from parents who are both ICU nurses. (By this I mean we are more aware of procedure & can therefore be more of a PIA. Fellow nurses know what I mean!!)

So once again we thank you for your support & encouragement during my training!!

I did it!!

Well - on May 3rd I finished my 1st half marathon. It was awesome too!! So great that I signed up for the Philly Half in November.

We arrived in the 'Burgh Friday afternoon & visited with family. It was a great visit, though I think we needed more time. Saturday Eric & I went downtown with Sarah & Emily stayed with her cousin to play for the day. We hit up the expo & got my goodie bag & tag. The tech shirt is so nice (wore for the race) but they ran out of Dick's Sporting Good bags. A bit of a downer!! Eric & I decided to get Sarah in the stroller & explore the Strip District. Poor decision on my part. First thing was I wore my Croc flip-flops - by the end of the evening I had the makings of a blister on both of my feet. Plus I think we walked about 5 miles!! Though it was so nice to see the area again!! We had corned beef sandwhiches (probably not a good idea pre-race but oh so good!!) and headed back to the hotel.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn which literally was the start line. So travel to the race was easy. I was near the end of the line due to my turtle-like pace. Only complaint was that I waited in line for 40 - 45 min for the porta-potty pre-race.

Once I got started I immediately dropped to the back of the pack!! ha! All I needed to see was that the ambulance was BEHIND me!! And I kept ahead of it all of the race.

Crossing 3 of Pittsburgh's bridges was a breath-taking event for me. I always tell people that we have the before skyline & that morning set in stone for me!!

I finally crossed the finish line at 3:13:32. And I didn't want to vomit, which impressed me the most!!! My only real complaint was that I was told they ran out of Half Marathon medals which was not the case so I had to have mine mailed ( & they mailed me a Dick's duffel bag, the nicer one that they gave out to the full marathoners!!)

The next day I was lucky enough to be able to stand. To make matters worse I had to sit in a car for 5 hours to get home. But it was worth it & look forward to doing it again!!

Pictures to follow later!!