I finished the Portland Marathon on October 1st. I walked it (can't quite imagine running it ever, but maybe some day) and completed the 26.2 miles in just about 6 hours and 45 minutes. That was 15 minutes longer than my training pace told me it would take. Rob and Audrey managed to cheer me on at three different places along the route, including the finish. My friend Jinnet and her baby daughter joined me for the last 8 miles to keep me company. I think I'll have to do it again next year so that I know that finishing wasn't just a fluke.

So, in other news, Audrey's doing great as always and is enjoying her second year of preschool. We've switched to a local co-op preschool, which means more involvement from me, but it's much closer to home and the buddies we meet at school are potential playdates - not so much when all the kids were from Hillsboro and Forest Grove as with the old school. Rob joined a local bowling league called Big Turkey Bowling and has been having a great time. They bowl for beer - what could be better. I've added a link to our list of links so you can see a great shot of Rob. Just look at the top ten photos for the week. His picture is number 7 "unvarnished celebration". Classic Rob.

Since this is essentially a house and kid blog, we'll stay in that vein and keep those who clearly have too much time on their hands up to date with our upcoming remodel. Yikes! We've already rebuilt our basements stairs to make them all even and straight. We got rid of a very oddly placed door to the outside that was in the middle of the wall outside the kitchen and was never used. Hopefully these are the things yet to come: Redo the kitchen ceiling and remove the nasty Office Space accoustic tiles and flourescent lights; redo the basement ceiling and remove same nasty tiles and hide plumbing under new sheetrock; tear off rotting back deck and replace with pretty new one; put in new windows in kitchen (replacing ugly sliding glass door with normal door) and rehabing all of our original wood windows. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it. When all that's done, the most exciting project of all.....New kitchen floor!!! I am so excited about ripping up the hideous (and if you've never been to our house, there's lots to hate about our kitchen, but the floor truly takes the cake) stick-on tiles and replace them with marmoleum. It will truly be an improvement worth every penny. Then I'll refinish the cabinets. This morning, with me doing the letters for her in the air in front of her, Audrey essentially wrote her name. She's been able to do an A for a while, but she got a good number of the other letters to look recognizable. I mean of course she's above average - she's my kid, but that's pretty cool, eh?

I realized a couple of months ago that we as a family have five cameras and almost never take any pictures. So, it became my mission to take more photos, and I decided to use my mom's old Minolta 35mm fully manual camera. I probably could use a class to refresh all of my photography skills since the last time I took a course and lots of pictures I was 12. But, in the mean time, I've been reading the manual that came with the camera and it is surprisingly helpful! My first roll had lots of shots that were mysteriously only half exposed, but the next roll had some truly good shots on it. I'm hoping the next roll will be even better. I'll try scanning a few of the shots I've taken and posting them here.
Sarah